Entanglement
by TeaOli
Summary: Uhura and Spock must solve a mystery or two, learn to be a couple again and protect the future: all while light years away from each other. Amb. Spock and his lover help things along. New formatting is STILL in progress. The story, however, is complete.
1. Choices

**Now: December 2260(a), The Vulcan Colony**

"Why did you do _that_?" Uhura knew she was overreacting, but the anger and fear were real and she didn't think she could hide them from Spock anyway.

"I thought that you would be pleased," he told her. "You are very close to him, and I believed you would be happy to know that I consider him to be a friend, as well."

"I _am_ pleased that you're making friends, Spock," she said, letting out a little breath. "But couldn't you have waited until I was back on the ship? And until we were a little closer to the end of the mission."

Spock's face fell as much as a Vulcan who followed the path of Surak's face could fall.

"Considering Leonard's irascible nature, it seemed prudent to approach him as soon as possible, beloved."

She sighed and looked away from the comm screen. He was right of course.

"That makes sense," she allowed, glancing back at her fiancé. "I'm just overreacting. Don't pay any attention to me."

"I did not mean to displease you, Nyota." He looked so sad, she wanted to cry for him. But she was still too pissed for that.

"I know, baby," she told him, trying to rein in her frustration. "Look, I have to go. I'm supposed to help T'Khio'ri with dinner. She's still learning to prepare Vulcan meals."

Spock nodded, but still looked unsure. "Of course, beloved. I would not wish to be the cause of your tardiness."

He reached out a hand to touch the screen and she did the same.

"I'll message you soon, okay? And we'll talk again in three standard days. Same time."

He nodded again, and she wanted to kick herself for having put that sad look on the normally austere visage. For not being able to say the words that would change it to the smile he offered only to her.

"I love you, Nyota." His words were a supplication, entreating her to confirm she was still his. She saw as much in his eyes.

"I love you, k'diwa," she replied, meaning it, before ending the communication.

.

.

Uhura sank onto a stool and propped her elbows on the work surface in Ambassador Spock's kitchen. The walk from the Hall of Welcome to the home he now shared with his betrothed had not settled her mind as she'd hoped. She leaned her face against one palm and gratefully accepted the proffered cup of tea with her other hand.

"What is troubling you today, Nyota?" T'Khio'ri asked. Concern was controlled, but still evident on her smooth brown face.

"Spock asked Len to be his best man."

T'Khio'ri smiled. "I can't think of a better choice. If he is anything like the Leonard McCoy I knew, he will prove to be a good friend to both you and to Spock."

"He already is! That's not it." Uhura shook her head in frustration. "I wasn't ready to announce this to the whole world. Spock and I have nearly three years to work things out and I'm confident we will, but… but I'm not all the way there yet. And telling Len means, if things _don't_ work out, there's one more person who will be disappointed by this mess.

"I feel like such a bitch for being angry with Spock over this, but I can't help it. The fact that he's telling other people and even making plans for our future should make me feel _more_ secure, shouldn't it? And, I look at you and your Spock and tell myself that what I've been through is cake compared to what you went through. But none of that makes the hurt and fear and confusion go away."

T'Khio'ri tugged Uhura's hand from under her chin and enclosed it in her nearly identical, but far warmer one. She squeezed lightly and dropped her shields.

"Do you believe pain is quantifiable? It is true that you did not experience the same events we did. It is true that you were not apart for as long as we were. It is also true that you have not been together as long as we have been. You don't have the benefit of many years together to help when you weigh what is unacceptable and what can be endured through compromise.

"Spock and Nyota are not 'meant to be.' If you find that you can't move beyond this hurt you still feel, the universe will carry on. In spite of what the entity and so many around you have led you to believe," the Vulcan woman told her.

"But what about our link?"

"With time, you could learn to live around it. It does not preclude you _absolutely_ from forming other romantic liaisons."

"It stopped _you_," a confused Uhura pointed out. "You never married."

"No, I didn't." T'Khio'ri shrugged. The very human gesture, like so many of her mannerisms, was still somewhat startling. "But before Spock became aware of what was between us, I took on several lovers over the years. In the end, I decided that none of them could give me what I needed from Spock.

"However, my situation was different from yours. My Spock had never offered me all of himself, and then taken it away. He'd never knowingly hurt me.

"You do not _have_ to be with your Spock unless your love gives you no other choice. There are other men who can make you happy if he cannot."

Uhura's mouth fell open for a second before she remembered herself and took a sip of tea.

"I have surprised you," the Vulcan woman stated. "That is, perhaps, because you can't imagine knowing him and not wanting to be with him. Yours is not the only other Spock I have met, Nyota."

She briefly sketched the story of a transporter malfunction that had sent her, Kirk, Scotty and McCoy to an alternate universe where there counterparts had served a brutal empire.

"I didn't meet the Nyota Uhura of that world, and so cannot speak for her, but if she and her Spock were more than colleagues, I doubt that love was the driving force that had brought them together," she explained. "He was ruthless — they all were — but he also had a sense of integrity I suspect the others did not share. He knew almost immediately that we were not his crewmates, and yet he helped us find our way home. Still, even knowing he made his choices based on a need for survival, he was not a man I could have loved. Perhaps it was different for the Uhura of his world. Perhaps not." She shrugged.

Swallowing another sip of tea, Uhura reflected on what the other woman had told her.

Now, imagining a world in which she and Spock hadn't fallen in love was as odd as imagining Ambassador Spock with a Nyota of his own had been just a few months ago.

She squeezed T'Khio'ri's hand in return.

"I _want_ to be with him," she said, and the conviction behind her words flowed through the link. "Maybe some other Uhura, one who never had him or who lost him or who, I don't know, had a very different life from _me_ could be happy with someone else. But I want _him_."

A fizz of happiness buzzed through both women and Uhura wasn't sure if it was hers or the Vulcan's. She found herself smiling and realized she didn't care.

"It seems to me that you've already made your decision," T'Khio'ri said. "Perhaps you had better let him know this, as well. Now, I think it's time we started cooking. Spock will be home soon."

* * *

**Now: December 2260(a), The Enterprise**

Silence ruled the Enterprise bridge for several minutes after they'd avoided the notice of three squadrons of Klingon Birds of Prey. Life in the Neutral Zone was a world away from the milk runs they'd become far too accustomed to.

"Nice work, Mr. Chekov," Kirk told the young tactical officer once everyone felt safe enough to start breathing again. "That was pretty quick thinking."

The Russian turned from his console and aimed a sunny smile at his commanding officer. _He was _blushing_, for God's sake_! Kirk looked down to avoid watching the kid basking in praise.

"I cannot take all the credit, Keptin," Pavel to him. "The idea came from the great tactician of the African Revolution, General Abraham Uhura."

Interest piqued, Kirk's head snapped up again. "General Uhura?"

Chekov nodded his head vigorously. "Yes, Keptin. He vas wery famous for his maneuwers in his day. He vas called a tactical genius. If I em not mistaken, he vas an ancestor of Lt. Uhura's."

"General Uhura was Lt. Uhura's five-times-great uncle," Spock supplied, unasked. "His tactical skill has been credited for allowing the freedom fighters to overcome the much larger forces of the Second Colonial Government."

Chekov's head bobbed so hard in agreement, Kirk feared he was going to hurt something.

"Yes," the young Russian told the group at large. "He did this ewen though the continent had been almost completely decimated during the Eugenics Wars. But, that is not so surprising vhen you consider he vas half Russian."

Jim spun his chair around to catch his first officer's reaction to this bit of nonsense. Pavel Chekov was the only person he knew, besides Lt., j.g. Saunders, who could elicit a nearly detectable annoyed response from Spock on a regular basis. His penchant for attributing every notable (in the positive sense, only) event in history to Russia or to Russians had tested the scientist's famous reserve.

Even Bones wasn't _that_ good at pissing off the half-Vulcan.

"General Uhura's great grandmother was originally from Ukraine," Spock stated as if he'd been asked.

"Jeez, Spock, did you have to pass a test before she agreed to your first date? Or did that come later?" he asked, smiling and shaking his head. "Know the family tree, side branches included, or no nookie?"

"Your attempt at humor is most inappropriate, Captain."

The half-Vulcan's face remained impassive but Jim knew he'd stepped over the line. He'd realized it even before Spock opened his mouth to deliver the overly formal rebuke. _Crap_. _Time to mend fences_. Again.

"Sorry, Spock," he said. "You're right, it's none of my damned business why you know more about your girlfriend's family history than most unofficial family historians know about their own ancestors."

He could have sworn Spock was about to sigh.

"Captain," he said instead, "is it not customary for a fiancé to know something about his betrothed's family?"

"Well, yeah, but knowing that her great-great-great-great-great uncle's great grandmother was born in Ukraine instead of in Russia is a little excessive. I mean, the direct line is one thing," Kirk teased, "but people who aren't even blood relations?"

Spock tilted his head to the side. "Actually, Captain, the youngest daughter of that union married into the what became the Wakufunzi family, so Lt. Uhura _is_ directly descended from General Uhura's great grandmother, though not from the general himself."

Kirk stared at his first officer for a moment before shaking his head. _Never argue with a Vulcan_, he reminded himself.

"I stand corrected, Mr. Spock," he said just to put an end to the bizarre conversational turn, and swung the command chair forward again.

"I _knew_ there vas a reason vhy Miss Uhura is so beautiful," Chekov murmured from his station. "Of _course_ she is also Russian!"

* * *

**A/N:** Here begins the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future.

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	2. Beginnings

**Now: December 2260(a), The Vulcan Colony**

"That is all for this day," Uhura announced. She packed up her materials as the students filed out of the lecture hall.

"Savensu," a soft male voice called out. "A moment of your time, if you will?"

She bit back a frustrated groan. Much like T'Dun, Torak had a genuine curiosity about humans and about human customs. Unlike the geological and atmospheric specialist who had once been her student, but was now her friend, _this_ student often expressed his interest through questions that were usually uncomfortable, and sometimes inappropriate. Much of what he thought he already knew had its basis in the Vulcan equivalent of rumor and speculation.

She steeled herself to hear whatever he wanted to ask without grimacing. She was tired.

Her work day was longer than usual because Uncle Tabansi and several of his aides were conducting field training with the more advanced students; Uhura had taken over their classes for the week.

"Was something about the lecture unclear, Torak?"

The Vulcan quickly moved down the aisle to stand just below the dais.

"Not at all, Savensu," he said. "I wished to discuss the methodology behind Minister Wakufunzi's decision to utilize nonlinear nanostructured metamaterials in the construction of fundamental components for the initial installation of the intraplanetary communications grid."

Surprised by this comparatively innocuous topic, Uhura decided to hear him out.

"The structure of the naturally-occurring photonic crystals in opalitum offer a similarly negative index of refraction," he continued. "Given the abundance of the substance on this planet, would it not have been more efficient to simply use opalitum in the components, and save our resources for other rebuilding efforts? Is this a case of 'human genius' occurring outside the bounds of logic"

_Torak had been an actuary for the planetary government in his previous life_.

_Surely he realized the risk of malfunction inherent in using the yes, similar, but not identical, photonic crystals the formed naturally in opalitum outweighed any benefit — either in time or resources saved — it had over using the artificially fabricated materials_?

_Besides, the Vulcans who were rebuilding the Science Academy had dedicated an entire unit to producing photonic metamaterials_.

Understanding dawned and Uhura's patience nearly abandoned her.

"I believe this is a query that would best be answered by Minister Wakufunzi himself," she said crisply. "He is expected to return to the city in fewer than three planet-days. I can assure you, the minister finds value in an inquisitive nature. His door is always open to those whose inquiries show a true desire to better understand the physics of technologically-enhanced communications."

Torak's face remained impassive, but his tone, when he spoke, broadcasted his utter confusion.

"I beg your pardon, Savensu," he said. "I do not understand 'his door is always open' used in this context."

Uhura forced herself not to smile maliciously.

"It is a common colloquialism in Standard," she explained. "It means that Minister Wakufunzi is amenable to engaging in exchanging information with those who come to him seeking a better understanding of his decisions as they pertain to his chosen lifework."

Torak nodded once in understanding. "Thank you, Savensu. I will speak to the minister upon his return."

"Before you do so, Torak, I think you should take another factor under consideration."

"What is that factor, Savensu?"

She attempted to keep the restrained exasperation from showing.

"The High Council has charged Minister Wakufunzi and me with creating a communications network that would withstand and/or overcome the obstacles engendered by the nature of this planet, and with ensuring that there are Vulcans with sufficient understanding of the engineering, the physics and the Federation protocols that specifically relate to our fields of concentration.

"Contrary to what you may have been led to believe by those had no role in making the decision, they did _not_ ask us to build a temporary grid. Minister Wakufunzi does not like redo his work unnecessarily.

"And his door does not usually remain open to those whose inquiries that have more to do with a belief that humans are fundamentally incapable of making informed decisions than with an actual wish to learn. He appreciates a challenge, but the opponent must make the contest worthy of his efforts."

Her student stared at her for so long, she thought he was not going to respond.

"My apologies, Savensu," he said, surprising her again. "In the future I will engage in deeper contemplation before approaching you or the minister with such queries."

With a final nod, he turned and walked back up the aisle.

She watched until he disappeared through the door of the lecture hall.

.

"Well done. You handled his impertinence well."

Startled, Uhura spun around to face her new visitor. She didn't like what she saw and didn't care to hide it.

"Councilor T'Pau," she said, "you should have announced your presence." She didn't couch the words with polite offers of her time, or white lies about putting the Council Member's needs ahead of those of a bothersome student.

From the look the Vulcan woman aimed her way, Uhura suspected T'Pau was aware that omission was deliberate. Although she knew such niceties were not part of Vulcan culture, Uhura was certain that T'Pau knew they were considered basic manners in humans.

"I see now that Amanda Grayson chose well," T'Pau told her.

Uhura wasn't quick enough at erasing the shock from her face.

"Oh yes, Nyota Uhura," T'Pau said. "I knew that Spock's mother singled you out from among all of the possible mates I selected for him. I allowed her interference because I wished to see if her display of favoritism would have favorable results.

"It would seem that adopting you as S'chn T'gai was more beneficial than I anticipated."

* * *

**Now: December 2260(a), The Vulcan Colony**

"I can't _believe that _woman! It's as if I _know_ she's out to get me, but I can't figure out what weapons she's going to use," Uhura grumbled. "How the hell am I supposed to fight back if I don't understand what I'm up against?"

T'Khio'ri moved aside the tomatoes she'd been slicing and started in on the pale brown Vulcan root vegetables.

"Perhaps for now you should just wait and see. 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,' as the saying went."

"I can't afford to wait and see. I promised Spock I wouldn't let her use us." She snagged a quarter of tomato and popped it into her mouth.

"In that case, I'll warn you to be careful of the promises you make in the future," the older woman told her as she moved the tomatoes out of reach. "Your k'diwa can't afford to be worrying about your safety when he's likely to be facing Klingons in the Neutral Zone."

Grinning, the human woman stretched until her fingers touched the edge of the glass bowl.

"Actually, they've been pretty successful at avoiding Birds of Prey. A few days ago Pavel came up with a maneuver he said was influenced by Great-great-great-great-great Uncle Abraham's strategies during the Revolution. Spock knows he's in love with a warrior woman who comes from a long line of warriors."

"Warriors who, since General Uhura's time, have mostly fought against disease and injustice," T'Khio'ri pointed out.

Uhura waved a hand that held another stolen tomato wedge. "Bah! A warrior is a warrior. You never stopped fighting to be with the ambassador, did you?"

T'Khio'ri laid down her knife and looked over at her young companion.

"No, I didn't," she said. "But there were times when I considered doing so."

"Yes, but that's because he didn't make it easy for you."

"And your romance has been such a smooth journey?" The raised eyebrow on the brown face so much like her own instantly reminded the human of her lover and his elder counterpart.

"I wonder if I'll start looking like Spock in a decade or three," she mused.

T'Khio'ri laughed and started chopping again. "Tell me how you knew," she suggested. "I'd like to hear the story, and undoubtedly reminding yourself of how you came together will take your mind off T'Pau for a little while."

Uhura grinned. "I don't know about _that_, considering I was on her 'list' from the start," she said.

She hesitated a moment before saying, "Our story is actually more pragmatic than romantic. We'd been friends for years by then, but I was _furious _with him that day."

* * *

**Then: May 225(a), Starfleet Academy**

"What the hell is this?" She waved a PADD in her favorite instructor's general direction.

Cadet Nyota Uhura stormed into Lieutenant Commander Spock's office, spitting fire.

"You think I should be department aide next year? What about our work?"

Spock maintained his habitual implacability.

"Our work will be complete by the end of this term, Cadet Uhura," he pointed out. "As the Academy Aide for Advanced Phonology and Advanced Acoustical Engineering you will have more responsibility than you had acting as aide for a single Advanced Phonology section. It will be a valuable addition to your résumé."

Uhura leaned over the instructor's desk until her face was centimeters away from his. "I want to work with the best because I work hard to _be_ the best. And remaining _your_ aide will ensure that I continue to be the best. Can you tell me that's not more important than how I appear on paper?"

"Cadet, please resume your seat," he said instead of answering. Since it was clearly an order, she complied, still shaking with righteous indignation.

He walked over to the door, closed and locked it before retracing his steps to his desk.

Once he was seated again, he studied her in silence for nearly three agonizing minutes. She offered a prayer to all the gods that their friendship would keep him from issuing a formal reprimand for her behavior.

"Nyota, I am not generally adept at interpreting the subtleties of human emotional responses or expressions," he began. "However, I believe that our association over the past four semesters has given me a greater understanding of _your_ responses, in particular. So, I do not feel entirely out of line in reminding you that the fact that you will no longer be my personal aide does not mean that you will no longer be a part of my life."

Uhura was almost dumbfounded. She'd never thought Spock was capable of vanity, but…

"W-what?" she managed to squeak.

Spock lifted an eyebrow and got to the point. "Cadet, was I incorrect in assuming that your intense negative reaction to what is essentially a promotion was brought about because you wish to engage in a long-term, possibly permanent, romantic and eventually-physical relationship with me?"

He couldn't have shocked her more than if he'd just said the sky had turned yellow.

"Permanent?"

"Possibly permanent."

"Are you telling me that you're getting rid of me because I have a _crush_ on you?" Now, she was nearly outraged. Her voice turned coolly formal. "I assure you, sir, whatever my personal feelings concerning you may be, they will have no affect on my ability to carry out my duties as your aide.. Has my work ever disappointed you?"

Spock leaned back in his chair, placed his elbows on the armrests and steepled his hands.

"On the contrary, you have always performed optimally," he said, watching her over his fingertips. "However, if you and I were to enter into a more intimate association while you were still a student and under my direct command, we would not only be in violation of several Starfleet regulations, we would also be putting the future of both of our careers in jeopardy."

"But if I take the Academy Aide position…."

"Then those regulations would no longer strictly apply. You are of age, and are no longer enrolled in any of the classes I teach."

"So, you're saying such an arrangement would not be… distasteful to you, sir?"

"If I found such an arrangement to be distasteful, Nyota, I would not be discussing the possibility with you."

"Oh." She looked down at her fingers, trying to stop the grin from spreading across her face. "Oh," she repeated. "In that case, sir, yes. I _do_ wish to engage in a long-term, _most likely_ permanent, romantic and, um, eventually-physical relationship with you. I just didn't think it was actually _possible_."

"And nor will it be, at least, not any time soon, if you insist on remaining my aide for next term."

"Ah. I see." She gave up on stopping the grin. "Sir, I would be honored to take the position of Academy Aide. I will contact Commander Cromer as soon as we are through here."

"We are finished now, Cadet," he told her, standing. "Anything we have left unsaid should be discussed when you come to my quarters for this evening's meal."

Hearing him revert to formality twisted Uhura's lips into a wry smirk as she also stood.

"I wasn't going to come tonight," she admitted. "I was so angry with you, I planned on not showing up. But then, I couldn't imagine just not telling you why I was so upset."

Spock's face softened infinitesimally. "I hope you will always feel capable of sharing your emotions with me," he said quietly.

"Me too."

She stopped short of the door and faced him again.

"Sir? I mean, Spock? I just agreed to _probably_ marry you one day and I've never even kissed you."

"That is an oversight which shall be remedied tonight, Nyota."

* * *

**Now: December 2260(a), The Vulcan Colony**

"And that was it. We just went on from there — slowly, of course, because he _is_ Spock, but since we were already in love… ." Still smiling at the memory, she stretched her arms above her head. "Except for the last few months, we've been together ever since."

T'Khio'ri continued chopping the vegetables that would make up the bulk of their evening meal.

"As I have told you, Spock and I came together under very different circumstances." The Vulcan woman smiled a little herself as she thought back to a time when she had another name, and somewhat different face and body. "There was no mutual acknowledgment of love between us. But we were both aware of… a _need_."

* * *

**Then: August 2266(p), The Enterprise**

She woke up knowing she would to go to him. It didn't make sense, but acknowledging that didn't lessen the need. That it was something she _wanted_ made her decision the work of a few seconds.

Pausing only to don something more appropriate than her sleep shirt — one never knew who might be wandering the corridors through the ship's night — she walked through the doors of her quarters within minutes of having opened her eyes.

His door opened to her hand. She didn't stop to wonder when or why he'd coded it to allow her free entrance. Instead, she hurried inside and scanned the darkened space for him.

She hadn't seen him move, but suddenly he was standing across from her, in the doorway to his sleeping area.

"Lt. Uhura," he rumbled in that deep voice she'd found equal parts annoying and intriguing, "you should not be here."

"Mr. Spock, if you're ill, you should be in Sickbay! Let me contact Dr. McCoy for— ." Her words were cut short as he swiftly closed the distance between them.

He was hot. He always was, but this time the heat rolling off him was nearly stifling.

"You must leave me, Nyota." He was pleading with her; she heard it as clearly as she could feel the rapid beating of his heart now that he was standing so close. "Leonard can do nothing for me."

She studied his strained expression and the _knowing_ began to make sense. "The trip to Vulcan… ?"

"Did not have the desired curative effect," he replied wearily.

"But I can." It was not a question.

"You don't know what you are saying, Nyota." But he was already moving even closer, his hands fisted at his sides as if to stop himself from touching her.

She touched him, instead.

"Tell me what you need, Spock," she whispered, fingers fluttering over his cheek. A burst of light seemed to flash behind her eyes as he leaned into her palm. "Show me what to do."

.

.

He was cooler now. Still hotter than any human lover she'd ever had, but the alarming wash of heat had dissipated at some point while their bodies had twined together, come apart and joined again. She rubbed her face into the black hairs covering his chest and breathed in his scent.

"I should not have called you here, Lieutenant." He didn't seem to realize that he was stroking her hair or that his other arm was wrapped loosely around her hips. He seemed unaware that her naked body was pressed against his side.

The warm fizz of happiness subsided so quickly, Uhura was stunned into momentary silence before the ability to speak came back in rush and with a vengeance.

"Don't you _dare_ apologize for choosing sex with me over death!"

She began squirming away, but his hand on her arm, firm, but not at all tight, kept her at his side.

"Sharing my body with yours is infinitely preferable to dying, Miss Uhura," he murmured against her neck.

Somewhat mollified, she stopped trying to break away from his iron-clad grip. Several deep breaths later, speaking without anger seemed possible.

"Thank you, Commander," she replied stiffly. "I still believe I should go, however." She tried not to enjoy the way his warm breath lifted the hairs at her nape.

"We are not done, Lieutenant." He punctuated his words with a nip at the spot where her neck met her shoulder. "The fever has been temporarily sated, but I am not yet cured."

A rush of pleasurable anticipation sent tremors rocketing through her entire being.

"How long?" Unconsciously, she pressed back closer to him as she posed her question.

"Until I have had my fill of you," he growled. His voice was quiet, but fierce.

She felt his torso stiffen — searching for his lost control, she guessed — then he stated more gently, "The fever is exacerbated by my genuine desire for you, but I suspect we will need no more than another twelve to fourteen hours."

His next words sounded almost… tender.

"I believe it could be slaked more quickly, but you are human, and in need of more rest than I require. I would not have you harmed by this experience, Nyota."

"Aren't you worried that someone will get suspicious? Spending the next fourteen hours in your quarters would hardly be considered discreet of me." The subject had to be brought up, although she wasn't sure she truly cared. He was stroking her side again, in the place just above her hip. Hours ago, he'd discovered the affects of touching her there.

"If you would like, we could adjourn to your quarters for the remainder of our time together."

His attempt at teasing made up her mind. She would stay, consequences be damned, if it even came to that. Still, she decided, it made sense to clarify her concerns.

"I was actually thinking of my duties, Commander. If I don't show up for my department meeting and then skip my bridge shift, I will be missed."

His hand stilled and she was half thankful, half regretful, that something she had said had caused the end to the delicious sensations he'd been eliciting from her person.

"I took the liberty of assigning you to a special forty-eight hour project when I became aware that I was still experiencing the Pon farr," he confessed. "I did not believe that such action would ultimately be necessary, but I was… not myself when I changed your schedule, and later, after I had regained enough sense to attempt to meditate my way through the Time, it seemed prudent not to change your schedule again. I did not wish to draw undue attention to you."

Uhura turned in his arms and smiled like the cat that got the cream. She buried her nose in the soft black hair liberally spread across his chest, breathed in and let out a contented sigh.

"This pleases you?"

"That you had the foresight to ensure we would be undisturbed for an extended period of time? Yes, of course I am." She raked her teeth across one flat nipple. "Don't sound so surprised, Mr. Spock. You must know women find you to be a talented lover."

"I have been told so in the past, Lieutenant," he replied. "However, my 'surprise' lies in the fact that you can still derive pleasure from my attentions while knowing that my feelings for you are not the same as those you have for me."

"Watch it, sir! That isn't the kind of thing you should be saying to a woman when your most vulnerable parts are exposed and within her reach. Especially when you've already pissed her off once."

Spock proceeded to apologize in the best way he was capable at that time.

* * *

**A/N:** Second chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	3. Needs

**Now: December 2260(a), The Enterprise**

Dressed in a lightweight robe, Spock settled onto the floor of his quarters. He lit the firepot and allowed the tension to flow out of his body. The muscles of his neck and shoulders relaxed, the taut line of his back eased, though his posture was did not alter. He felt his arms go slack. His thighs and calves loosened.

Drawing his consciousness inward, he began to meditate.

Life had always offered him challenges, but rarely more so than in the past seventeen days. Leaving his mate — and he accepted that designation now, even if she had yet to do so — at the Vulcan colony, so soon after gaining her forgiveness, had been difficult. Logic dictated that he, now secure in the knowledge of her intention to share a future with him, should have found the separation easier to endure.

He did not.

Instead, he found himself desiring her presence and frequent reassurances that he hadn't completely destroyed her trust in him with his dogged determination to leave her in favor of a Vulcan mate.

It was illogical to worry about what was to come, but logic was increasingly absent from his thoughts concerning Nyota Uhura.

His comm chimed with the distinctive planet-to-ship tones. Only one person would contact him via subspace without notice. Unfolding himself from his seat on the floor, he walked over to console to answer it.

He stared at his beloved's face in the view screen. He didn't like what he saw. He hated that he couldn't feel whatever it was that was dimming the lights in her eyes.

"You were meditating," she said, eyeing his robes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called."

She reached forward to end the communication. He interrupted her.

"Nyota, please," he said gently, "tell me what is troubling you."

Her hand fell away and she slumped in her seat. But she didn't otherwise allow him access to her emotions. The absence was… disturbing.

"Nothing's really wrong," she told him. "My work changed after we met with the entity. Dealing with nature was a cakewalk compared to that. We easily found solutions for everything the planet threw at us. We're months ahead of schedule in almost every aspect of the project."

"This is not good news?" he asked, knowing, of course, it was not.

"It's good for the colony. It's good for the Council," she agreed, "but not so good for me. I'm bored, Spock! It feels as if there's nothing left for me to do. How can I stay the best if I'm not doing anything worthwhile?"

"Surely there is work you can do, research you can perform that will keep you mentally stimulated until either a new challenge arises or you return to the Enterprise."

"Well, I'm still conducting classes for the most remedial of our students," she conceded. "But even those aren't very challenging. It's not as if anyone is truly 'remedial.' Everyone is learning quickly and pretty soon, they'll be ready to go out into the field or into the labs, just like everybody else.

"There's this one, Torak, who asks all kinds of personal questions. I think he's really interested in humans, but doesn't realize we have boundaries, too. When T'Dun used to ask her questions, she never stepped over the line. She did her research first, I suppose. Or maybe it was just that Vulcan reserve keeping her from embarrassing either of us."

She smiled a little as she spoke of her friend.

"Torak, however, is another story. I think he may take rumors of the human lack of rationale a little too seriously. Four days ago he asked me why Uncle Tabansi decided to use metamaterials in the comm components instead of opalitum."

Nyota's sorrow seemed to ease as she related her recent experiences. Tilting his head to the side, Spock decided to encourage her to unburden herself. At least he could _listen_.

"Surely he is aware that the manufactured materials are more uniform in structure and therefore far more reliable?"

A triumphant grin spread across her face and Spock was overjoyed to redirected her focus.

"Exactly! He was an actuary on Vulcan. He understands risk. He just wanted to test our ability to reason!" She was grinning openly now. "Oh, k'diwa, I wish you had been there! I don't know how I kept my cool, but I told him that he should talk to Uncle Tabansi about it, but warned him that foolish questions wouldn't be tolerated. Using the most polite terms I could manage, but I think he got the picture. He actually _apologized_."

"You can be a formidable opponent, beloved," Spock reminded her.

She simply wrapped her arms around herself and continued to smile at him. Then he felt he felt her shields drop and her joy flooded into him. He let his own pleasure in her happiness flow back.

They stayed that way as the seconds ticked by, content to share emotions more pleasant than either had experienced of late.

"It's not that bad," she said after forty-seven point three seconds had elapsed. "Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by just how underwhelming my job has become, but right now, I can barely remember why."

Spock remembered. But he didn't wish to take away her current exhilaration. And yet, he knew she needed him to be completely open with her.

"You are in a difficult situation, ashayam," he pointed out. "It is not easy for one with your talents to accept being underutilized. And yet, until your assignment is complete, there is little to be done to change your situation."

She sagged a little, but her happiness did not decrease significantly.

"I know. Actually, with so much free time on my hands, I've had time to think." And suddenly she looked, and felt, shy.

He was not accustomed his mate displaying reservation of any kind. "What is it, beloved?"

She looked down. "It may sound far-fetched, coming from a communications specialist, but after I stopped being angry with Torak, I remembered reading about late Twentieth Century and early Twenty-first Century research into _cloaking_," she said, then glanced up as if testing to see if he found her admission ridiculous. The link confirmed his visual assessment of her emotional state. He sent confidence and trust back. "What he said about the abundance of opalitum on the colony is true. Federation scientists stopped backing any legitimate studies because no one really thought cloaking was a realistic enough possibility to justify the expense. But if we could develop our own technology, using less expensive, more readily available resources, the Romulans and Klingons would see us on more equal terms.

"And if I thought you could be invisible, maybe I wouldn't have to worry so much about you being out there."

He wasn't sure why he enjoyed the way her confession brought a rush of red to her brown cheeks.

"Cloaking?"

"Well, if we had the ability to cloak our ships, you'd be a lot safer. Romulans have been able to do it for a long time and now that the Klingons can do it too, any Federation ship in the Neutral Zone is at a disadvantage. I keep thinking that if we could develop our own cloaking technology, perhaps the playing field would be a bit more leveled."

"Have you so little faith in Mr. Chekov's ability to adapt General Uhura's tactics?" His question was rewarded with an actual laugh. Under the circumstances, Spock was elated.

"No, but I wouldn't mind knowing you had some extra help in avoiding detection," she said.

Then, as quickly as she had become amused, she was somber again.

"I want you to come back to me in one piece, k'diwa."

He heard what she hadn't specifically said. _I _need_ you to come to me, period_.

"Perhaps you should utilize your 'free time' in developing such a device, rather than merely thinking about it," he suggested, just to get her mind off the possibility of his death. "Indeed, as you have available to you a great quantity of naturally-occurring photonic crystals, why not leave whimsy behind and see if you can achieve a workable model? As you pointed out, it would do much to 'even the odds out here' so to speak."

"Because, _you_ are the brilliant scientist in this family. You know even better than I do just how ill-equipped I am to determine how to convert the potential for opalitum to behave as a camouflage in the _visible_ _spectrum _into the capacity of making a starship appear invisible to _sensors_. The likelihood of my success is incredibly low." She grinned at him again. "But I appreciate what you're trying to do."

Feigning innocence, Spock lifted an eyebrow.

"Trying to get my mind off just how dangerous it is for you out there?"

He smiled slightly. "I see that my endeavors have failed."

"Not entirely," she replied. "I know the possibility is there. But I also know that I'm not the one to implement it. It would be so much easier if you were _here_! You could spend your days developing the device, and then come home to me, and work wouldn't seem so useless if I my biggest worry was what to feed you every night."

The right corner of his mouth ticked up a bit higher. "I was unaware that you had developed such a penchant for domesticity," he observed. "What has altered your perspective?"

"Spock and T'Khio'ri are rather domestic," she told him. "Watching them puts strange ideas in my head, I guess. I don't _really_ want to be the 'little woman' sitting at home baking cookies. I'm grasping at legitimate reasons to keep you out of danger."

Spock nearly grinned outright. "Ah, I see," he said. "You are lonely again."

Nyota frowned. "No, that's not it. I have friends now — more than just Spock, I mean. There's T'Dun and T'Khio'ri and Uncle Tabansi is here, too. It's just that…"

"You miss me," he finished for her. "Your absence pains me as well, beloved."

"Damn you, Spock," she said, rubbing her knuckles against her eyelids, "you make me sound like a stupid little girl."

"Is it 'stupid' to wish to be in the presence of one's mate, Nyota?" he asked. "If so, then I am guilty of the same lack of intelligence."

She was silent for longer than he liked to see.

"I'll think about it," she said at last. "About the research, I mean."

He considered his next suggestion for less than a second before speaking again.

"I realize my t'dahsu is occupied by his reunion with his mate, but there are some at the Science Academy who may be amenable to assisting you, should you seek them out."

"I'll think about it, k'diwa," she promised again. "I don't know about working with any of them directly, but if nothing else, I'll consult them about the feasibility."

He knew there was something else bothering her, but chose to be content with having lifted her spirits as much as already had.

When Spock lay in his bed later that night, his state of mind was as considerably more well-ordered than it had been after his most successful meditation in several months.

* * *

**Now: December 2260(a), The Vulcan Colony**

Sitting in Sarek's study failed to have its usual palliative effect. She was just as unsettled as she had felt speaking with Spock earlier in the week. Erecting and maintaining mental shields was instinctive and she was glad that her adoptive father wouldn't be able to sense her emotional unrest through the family bond. Whether or not he would be able to read the anxiety on her face was another matter. She schooled her features into what she hoped looked something like impassivity.

"I want to go back to the valley." Her confident voice belied the nervous waves sloshing around in her stomach. She forced herself not to bite her lip.

Sarek's head tipped into a tiny angle. "Elaborate, ko-fu."

"I want to meet with the presence again," she explained. "The preliminary design work on the grid is complete. Customized components are currently being manufactured and any other equipment that didn't arrive with Minister Wakufunzi and his team must be delivered from off-planet. My time here is being underutilized."

She hadn't expected easy compliance, and Sarek didn't offer it.

"Why?"

But she hadn't been prepared to hear the question so soon. She should have been, she realized immediately. Sarek wasn't like Leonard McCoy or even Jim Kirk. He didn't waste time delving into deeper motives or seeking out psychological motivators.

"I need something to do," she said honestly. "Sometimes it's just that I'm bored, other times I'm consumed with worry about Spock. I need to be productive again."

His expression didn't change, but somehow his voice conveyed both his affection and his empathy. "Seeking out the entity, and possibly endangering your person in the process, would not be _productive_, Nyota," he pointed out quietly. Once she would have seen the words as cold. Now she knew better. "As this being no longer presents an obstacle to the completion of the communications network, meeting with it cannot be considered to fall under the purview of the mandate that keeps you here. The Council would never approve, and I neither I nor your uncle will allow you to put yourself at risk."

She opened her mouth to protest, to point out that she was a grown woman and fully capable of taking care of herself, but her adopted sa-mekh held up a hand to silence her. _You are a Starfleet officer_, she reminded herself. Disobedience, without sufficient reason, went against her training.

"When you spoke with Spock three nights ago, you mentioned an interest in determining the feasibility of using opalitum in developing cloaking technology," he noted. Inwardly, she grimaced. Her k'diwa must have been concerned about her emotional state to have shared so much with his father. "Pursuing this interest would have the double advantage of leaving you with little time to be bored, and of perhaps resulting in the development of technology that might one day keep your mate safe while he serves on dangerous missions."

He meant well. She knew he meant well, but she wasn't sure he understood why she needed to return to the valley, to be filled with the multi-layered voice once more. How could he, when she didn't understand it herself?

She didn't bother pointing out that she wasn't entirely suited to lead the research. Spock had undoubtedly shared her doubts about her qualifications, as well.

Nodding her head, she rose to leave.

"I have an appointment scheduled with the Science Academy next week," she told him. "Perhaps they will give me the assistance I require."

.

.

"Why?"

Uhura was beginning to hate the word.

"I don't _know_!" Instantly, she regretted her harsh tone. Sucking in a deep breath, she attempted to calm herself. Exhaled. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. Forgive me. Please."

She wasn't sure why she was so on edge. It was something more than boredom and concern for Spock.

"I don't understand why, but I feel as if I _should_. It's almost like it's been calling me, but not exactly. I just know I need to do this."

T'Khio'ri and Spock exchanged concerned looks, and the Vulcan woman took her lover's hand in hers. "I think it's time she saw what happened me," she said.

* * *

**A/N: **Third chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_.

Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	4. Changes

**Now: December 2260****(a)****, The Vulcan Colony**

"Bin Wakufunzi were never supposed to work openly," T'Khio'ri began. "We are meant to walk in shadows, carrying out our assignments under the guise of whatever our official occupations may be. None but the highest in Starfleet Intelligence even know what we are. It is our strength."

She paused to gather her thoughts and Spock reached over and covered their joined hands with his free one.

"It is also that which made it possible for me to become what I am," she continued, leaning her forehead against her lover's for a brief moment.

When she looked up again, Uhura was watching them in rapt silence. _Yes_, decided the Vulcan woman, _the time has come for her to see_.

"Spock did not wish for me to go on the mission," she said aloud. "By the standards of bin Wakufunzi, he was my spouse and so should have had a say in the matter. As I had never let him know this, however, he could only express his concern. Even then, I was determined to live my life as I chose. The only 'should' I acknowledged was what I believed to be right. I did not believe that Spock should have any more influence on my choices than any other dear friend might have.

"At eighty-three years old I had already spent decades loving him — and realizing that he loved me — but he was unaware of even his own feelings, and I took care to keep him from learning that mine had not changed ."

* * *

**Then: September 2322(p),** **Earth**

"They can't send a fleet ship to investigate because no one is supposed to know what we've been doing there," Uhura told her lover. "They're only taking volunteers, Spock — the director refuses to order any of our people to go on what might amount to a suicide — and there wasn't exactly a great rush to sign up.

"Until I agreed to lead a mission. A few more people came on board then — mostly bin Wakufunzi, or Wakufunzi spouses. Some others that believe I've been brought in either as part of a bid to move to the diplomatic corps, or to legitimize the operation for Starfleet."

Uhura forced down the flutter of nerves that threatened to wreak havoc in her stomach. The dignified half-Vulcan considered what she'd just told him. She would have preferred not to have brought it up during their first night together in almost a year, but he'd sensed her distraction throughout dinner, and honesty was important to him. He deserved to know his visit would be curtailed.

"Do you think it wise, Nyota?" he asked. "Surely there are others in Starfleet Intelligence who can find out what happened to the missing ships."

Concern wreathed Spock's handsome face. Uhura knew it was a sign of him comfort in her presence that he would so openly show his distress. It touched her heart, but didn't lessen her resolve.

Pasting on a small, but what she hoped appeared to be carefree, smile, she reached out and began smoothing away the worry lines from his forehead.

"Are you worried this mission is too much for an old, decrepit human woman, Ambassador?" She kept her tone light and her shields up. It wouldn't do for him to know just how much his approval meant to her. She'd rather be unaware of that herself.

"This crew has a better chance of coming back if I'm with them. You _know_ that is true," she continued, abandoning the false cheer.

"_Two ships_ in the past seven months, Spock, with two crews — people with friends and families all waiting to know what happened to them. How can I leave them wondering if I can get answers for them?"

He stared at her for so long, she thought that he might not respond. That he might just walk out of her house, knowing that there was nothing he could do to change her mind. Instead, he stepped closer and slid an arm around her still-narrow waist, pulling her hand down to his lips before releasing it.

"I would hardly describe you as 'decrepit,' Admiral," he whispered silkily and dipped his head to brush soft lips against her temple. "I am, however, anticipating the… discomfort your absence might cause me. After all, it was our intention to use this month to… renew our acquaintance."

Uhura threw back her head and laughed. Since she'd given up starship duties for a teaching position at the academy, they had been "renewing their acquaintance" quite a bit more frequently than had been their wont.

And she was far from decrepit. As it was necessary for all bin Wakufunzi to remain fit at all times, medical technology not yet available to ordinary citizens had assured that the octogenarian enjoyed a body a woman in her sixties would have been proud of.

She pressed that body even closer to his. As was often the case, his Vulcan heat instantly ignited her need.

"I'm not leaving for another two weeks, Ambassador," she replied, twining her arms around his neck. "You may get to know as much of me as you desire in that time."

Cradling the back of her head with one hand, he cupped her bottom with the other, pulling her in and up that she could feel his own growing need.

"Then I shall have to make careful use of that time," he murmured, "because I desire to know you very well, indeed."

* * *

**Now: December 2260****(a)****, The Vulcan Colony**

"It was a simple matter to focus only on my joy in the time we had together in order to push aside his misgivings," T'Khio'ri continued. "I wanted — I _needed_ — to be with him without our fears and disagreement on the subject of my work marring our happiness. For the next two weeks, I didn't allow myself to think about what was to come. When that time was over, I followed the call that had been plaguing me for months."

Again, she leaned her forehead against Spock's and took comfort in his proximity. She drew in the strength that he offered and then forced herself to meet Uhura's eyes.

"Let me show you what happened after I left him."

She motioned for Uhura to join her on the small sofa. Spock stood and walked over to the chair the younger woman vacated. Once both were settled, T'Khio'ri placed her fingers on Uhura's contact points.

* * *

**Then: Stardate unspecified 2322(p),** **the USS Penkovsky**/**Planet Unnamed**

Saying good-bye had been difficult. Uhura had known it would be. In truth, she'd been surprised that Spock had held off trying to change her mind until the day she left. _Almost as if he suspected the rest_, she reflected. The time in between had been spent spent in absolute dedication to taking pleasure in one another's company.

She watched the black expanse of space flying by as her ship hurtled through its depths.

"Admiral Uhura, short range sensors are picking up an unknown planet object in our immediately vicinity." The worried voice of the small ship's navigator broke through her reverie. "There was nothing there a second ago, sir. I don't understand. There's not supposed to anything out here for parsecs!"

"Bring up an image on the main viewer," the admiral ordered.

And it was there, looming front of them. An astronomical body that shouldn't exist in this charted, but largely unexplored by any Federation members, sector of the Beta Quadrant.

Uhura didn't doubt that this mystery planet was somehow related to the disappearance of two ships crewed by officers of Starfleet Intelligence.

_____________

There was no logical reason for her to beam down with the away team. Several members of her small crew had, in fact, protested it. But something called her to the small L-class planet, and in the end she would not be moved from her decision.

_____________

The air was thin, only just breathable for humans. And what there was of it was cold. Both had been expected and the team had prepared themselves accordingly.

What was unexpected was the relative abundance of plant life. The ship's scanners hadn't picked that up.

Uhura and her two companions moved, tricorders out, through the low-lying scrub. She sent the others off to scan areas at one hundred degree angles from the path she took. She didn't think they'd find much of anything.

But the planet still called.

_____________

When the hole opened up thirty meters away from where she stood, Uhura didn't wait to see what came screeching out.

Turning in a circle, she located the rest of the landing party and quickly estimated coordinates before flipping open her communicator to order an emergency beam up.

Compliance was instantaneous.

Almost.

She watched in horror as the other two members of her team winked out before her eyes, while the keening of whatever was behind her rose in pitch and volume.

Turning again, she looked at death head-on.

It came in the form of a cylindrical beast with teeth half as long as she was tall.

The creature rose up four meters in the thin air, swaying as it appeared to scent her. It had no eyes that she could find.

Carefully, hoping not to help it locate her, she scanned the area surrounding her. They had beamed down to the planet's day-side, but light was rapidly fading. There was little cover that she could see.

Nothing that could hide her from the beast she suspected was hunting her.

And then, before she could completely register what was happening, the creature was moving towards her.

Too fast even for an eighty-three year old woman who had the body a sixty-year-old would be proud of.

She spoke into her communicator one more time, ordering her crew to abandon rescue attempts and to return to the Alpha Quadrant.

_____________

Uhura stared at death, head-on, and it had teeth. But when it came, there was little pain. Just a burning splash of liquid against her cheek, and then a dull paralysis that rendered her helpless at once.

She could not even close her eyes.

Death was those long teeth bearing down on a body so immobilized that even her heart rate did not increase as they grew closer.

Then it was a hazy light filled with many voices speaking together, all of them seeming to ask, _Is this the one_?

And then, _It is too late_.

And finally, it was the nothing she had always suspected death to be.

_____________

When she awoke, the sun was on her side of the planet again, but she was in a place of darkness. She did not understand how she knew these things. She had not opened her eyes.

Despite her nakedness, she did not feel the cold right away. The death-that-was-light spoke to her in its multilayered voice.

_You are one who is one of two. You are one who is one of two. You are one who is one of two_.

Until the refrain became _The second comes_. And this was repeated as she swam in and out of consciousness, aware, somehow, that she had been changed.

_____________

In the next clear memory, she was out of the place of darkness, back among the scrub in the vast plain she had explored with her team of bin Wakufunzi comrades. Where she had ordered her ship to abandon her to death-that-had-teeth.

The beast lay just a few meters away from where she stood. It's rotting stench polluted the thin air that was now easy to breath in spite of the smell.

She was still naked, and this time she felt the cold.

_____________

The death — no, the — _savior_-that-was-light was there again and its voices said _The second is here_.

And there was Spock, standing before her. Staring at her with confusion and awe and fear and relief and _love_ so clear in his eyes, she nearly fell to her knees.

But he his strong arms were around her before she touched the ground and his deep voice was in her ear and it said, "Nyota?"

She would have answered in the affirmative if she had not been aware that she was no longer Nyota Uhura.

* * *

**Now: December 2260****(a)****, The Vulcan Colony**

Abruptly, T'Khio'ri dropped her hand from Uhura's contact points, ending the meld. But she did not move away.

"Do you understand, Nyota? Do you see now why you should not try to find the entity again? Not alone. Not without Spock."

"This isn't the same thing at all," Uhura protested. "It saved your life the only way it knew how. The being has encountered me three times as a whole, healthy human. Even if I _was_ injured in some way and the entity tried to heal me, it would already know what form I should take."

"It does not appear to differentiate physical bodies in the same way we do," Spock offered. "It saw T'Khio'ri as half of a whole because of her link to me. To the entity, I was her mate. We were one mind existing in two bodies. The mind is all it recognizes as important, as _real_.

"We came to be it changed Nyota Uhura's physical form to match the what it believed to her true essence.

"You are not only linked to Spock as his mate — you _are_ his mate in every way that matters to the entity; it perceives you and Spock as one mind — but you are also bonded into the S'chn T'gai family. If anything happened that forced this being to heal you, how much of Nyota Uhura would remain?"

T'Khio'ri watched as the significance of Spock's words sank into her young counterpart's agile brain. Fear warred with horror and defiance, all within the space of a few seconds.

* * *

**A/N: **Fourth chapter the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays. (Sorry for the late post tonight.)

Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	5. Ease

**Now, December 2260(a), Vulcan Colony**

T'Khio'ri recognized the mutinous gleam in her counterpart's eyes. She'd seen it often enough staring back from mirrors in her younger days.

"It is not so different as you believe it to be," she cautioned. "While it is true you have not been physically injured, you are not yet fully healed from Spock's defection. This restlessness you have been feeling is most likely a symptom of that.

"But that is not the only reason you need to careful of the entity," she continued. "Look at me, Nyota. The equivalent of sixty-five years passed between the time Spock found me on that planet and the time he left to destroy the supernova. Another year went by before I went in search of him, and yet I arrived in your universe the twenty-three years before he did. After ninety-one years, Nyota, my body is the same as the day I was reborn. I do not wish for you to live this way if using caution can prevent it."

Several moments elapsed before the younger woman spoke. Even then, confusion was the most prominent expression on her pretty face.

"I don't understand," she managed to say, stealing a quick glance at the half-Vulcan sitting across from them. "Spock said… ."

T'Khio'ri raised an eyebrow. "He told you that I owed the entity a debt? That I would not age until it was paid? Spock is brilliant, honey — both of them are — but neither of them knows everything."

She turned to her ashayam and smiled sadly. "I am sorry, k'diwa. I did not share all of my experiences with you. I thought… I believed some things were better left unsaid. But Nyota has a right to know this now. She must fully understand the risks.

"My 'debt' should have been rendered null with the destruction of Romulus. I can only surmise that by choosing to follow he who was my mate in all ways that mattered to me, I extended my obligation. While I do not regret my choice, I would prefer not to see anyone else take on a similar duty."

Turning back to her younger self, once again, the Vulcan woman held up her hand in silent question. At Nyota's nod, she placed her fingers on her t'dahsu's contact points.

.

.

It only took moments to reveal the part of her story she had kept hidden for so long.

The human woman was left panting, full of both wonder and a new understanding. Once she had controlled her breathing, she looked first at Spock, then at T'Khio'ri.

"I will leave the being alone for now," she promised, "but... T'dahsu... ? You should tell him ."

T'Khio'ri stared intently at the woman she once was, a myriad of feelings flickering through her and over her face. Fear, awe, love and finally, resignation all led to the single nod she gave Nyota.

"I will do so, my t'dahsu." She turned to Spock again. "I planned to wait until our bonding, but Nyota is correct, I should have told you at the beginning. I can only say that I was unaccustomed to dealing with the new intensity of my emotions after the alteration, and thought to protect you. After… well, after, I simply believed that I knew best."

Spock smiled, and there was love, understanding and forgiveness plain to see on his face.

"You have always been stubborn, my love," he told her. "If you had not been, I would have lost you long ago."

Uhura took that, and the private looks the two continued to exchange, as her cue to leave.

"I think I might take Sarek's advice," she told the couple as she rose from her seat. "He was right, you know? If I could help develop a workable cloaking device, all of Starfleet — and not just any ship Spock was on — would be safer out there."

Both Vulcans turned to look at her.

"That is a wise decision," T'Khio'ri said and Uhura reflected that it was the _only_ decision she could make, knowing what she now knew about the entity. "I will help you in anyway I can."

"Thank you," was her only response before leaving.

* * *

**Now, December 2260(a), Vernos VI**, (Neutral Zone border colony)

Spock was content. For the first time since the brief respite he'd found after suggesting Nyota pursue her idea of developing cloaking technology, he felt at ease within his mind and body. Even the prospect of joining a landing party comprised of only Dr. McCoy and himself had not been able to alter his mood.

"Can't understand why anyone in their right mind would want to live out here," Leonard grumbled on the way to Decker's Landing.

"Many once thought the original colonizers were _not_ 'in their right minds,' which is precisely why they chose to establish a home here," Spock told him as they navigated the rock-strewn path to the small town that served as Vernos VI's main settlement. "They preferred to live in physical isolation rather than endure the ostracizing of those who found fault with their beliefs."

"What's gotten into you, anyway?" Leonard asked. "When you first got back you were so wrapped up loveville, I nearly got a cavity just being in the same room with you. Then, you were jumpier than a coon at a Davy Crockett Appreciation Association dinner, and I figured it was your human half proving you were scared as the rest of us about getting assigned to the Neutral Zone."

"Technically, Doctor, we are not in the Neutral Zone," Spock pointed out. "Should we leave our patrol of its borders, the Romulans would view our actions, however benignly intended, as an act of war. Not even Jim Kirk is reckless enough to risk that."

Leonard scowled at him and picked up his pace. He continued on the same vein as if the half-human had not spoken. "_Now_, you're back to being your annoying Vulcan self, and I can't figure out why. So spill!."

Spock raised an eyebrow. "Spill, Doctor?"

Stopping short, Leonard tripped over a rather large rock and would have fallen had his companion not grasped his upper arm and easily held him up. Somehow, he managed to keep the bag of medical supplies they were supposed to deliver to the tiny outpost from reaching the ground.

The doctor glared at the half-Vulcan and wrenched his arm away.

"Don't pay stupid, Spock. It doesn't become you," he muttered, brushing nonexistent dust from his uniform. "What gives?"

Spock rolled his eyes — Leonard wasn't looking at him. Still, he had meant it when he'd told his mate that he considered this man — ornery nature and all — to be a friend. And as the ship's most senior medical professional, it was Leonard's job to assess the crew's ability to serve. From nearly anyone else, these questions would have been intrusive and impertinent. From the doctor they were merely… to be expected.

"Nyota was… ill at ease during our first weeks patrolling the Borders," he answered eventually. Both officers resumed walking. "We are both still adjusting to the strengthening of our mental and emotional connection, so I may have been somewhat unduly affected by her disquiet. She is faring much better now, and so am I."

He did not understand the glance Leonard directed his way.

"Hold up a sec. You mean to tell me you two 'bonded' already? Like, you're already married?" A smile played at the edges of the older man's lips.

Suddenly, Spock could guess where the conversation was leading. "No," he replied evenly, giving no hint of the satisfaction he felt at being able to answer in the negative. "We will bond and marry in three years' time, as planned. Your services as best man will still be required."

He suppressed a smile when the doctor's shoulders slumped a little.

"What changed?" McCoy asked, getting back to the original topic. "How come she's not so restless anymore, I mean?"

Spock was not sure and answered honestly.

"I do not know," he said. "She and Ambassador T'Khio'ri have embarked on a new project in conjunction with several deans from the new Vulcan Science Academy, but I do not believe that having more work to occupy her mind is the sole reason for her newfound peace of mind."

Leonard harrumphed. Spock forced himself not to sigh.

"Well, what do you think it is?"

Spock could not stop himself from shooting an annoyed look at his friend. "I have just said I do not know, Doctor," he said.

Leonard's smile might have been considered gleefully malicious by some. Spock was beginning to understand that it was part of the doctor's idea of 'male bonding.'

"I get it," his companion told him. "All that Vulcan mind-mesh hoo-doo doesn't make you understand women any better than the rest of us."

"It would seem not, Doctor," Spock replied.

* * *

**A/N:** Fifth chapter the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays. (I realize this is a short one that looks like filler, but it actually matters quite a bit.)

Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	6. Duty

**Now, December 2260(a), Decker's Landing on Vernos VI**

Decker's Landing wasn't big enough to swing a cat. What was meant to have been a two hour delivery had turned into a three-day-and-counting mission. Bones grumbled at the thought of just how long he might have to stay in the tiny town and wished fervently for a bottle of the good stuff.

The people of Vernos VI had needed far more than the small cache of medical supplies he and Spock had carried to the surface. Outdated inoculations and broken down infrastructure had led the two Starfleet officers to request a larger landing party to join them.

Now, Chapel was making sure their clinic was running smoothly, Scotty had restored most of the electrical grid, and Spock had holed up in the community center with the head of the colony's science committee — if three people could be considered a committee, that is.

Bones turned as Jim walked up to him. The young captain surveyed the tumble-down village before him with unnaturally bright eyes.

"What's got _you_ so god-awful happy?" the doctor just about snarled.

Jim grinned and clapped him on the back. "Have you seen the head of the science committee, Bones? That woman would probably make Helen of Troy look like Admiral Archer's beagle, and she's practically _drooling_ all over Spock.

"Poor guy doesn't even notice yet, but when he does, he's gonna play the Uhura card. And guess who will just happen to have an available shoulder for the delectable Jessica Maddox to cry on?"

"You're just a dog sometimes, Jim," McCoy told him, shaking his head.

Kirk smirked and focused on the community building. As if on cue, Spock emerged, looked around and then strode towards them.

The Vulcan was looking decidedly perplexed, Bones noticed.

* * *

**Now, December 2260(a), the Vulcan Colony**

"You promised Nyota you would tell me what you have shared with her."

Spock stood watching her from the center of their sitting room, his back to the half-moon hanging in the sky.

T'Khio'ri stared back, outwardly fearless, but internally at war with herself. She was not afraid that what she had to tell him would lessen his regard for her, but she knew there was a chance he would be hurt that she had not spoken of these things before.

"I have never desired to cause you distress, Spock," she told him. "What was hidden — my affliction — I believed it could be harmful to you if I shared it fully. You loved me, and you finally understood what it meant to do so. I knew that you would insist on the bonding and on taking a share of my burden as your own."

Rising from her seat on the sofa she had shared with Nyota, she moved closer to her lover until she could feel his heat mingling with hers.

"When the entity remade me, it did not simply combine what was left of my body with that of what it believed to be my Vulcan 'mate'," she confessed. "It left a part of itself behind as well.

She moved closer still, and slipped her arms around his waist, never taking her gaze from his.

"You know that sometimes I see what is to come," she pointed out, "and yet you have never asked me why that is so."

He did not move to hold her, but neither did he try to move away.

"I sensed you did not wish to speak of it," he admitted, "and, in the beginning I feared pressing too hard for information. Later, not asking had become a part of our way of life."

"You were right not to press. I would have left you in order to keep you safe," she whispered. "That would have been a mistake — we can never be truly parted as long we both live — but I would have made the attempt."

T'Khio'ri drew in a long breath and when she continued, her voice was stronger.

"The entity told Nyota that it exists in all times and in none. That is not a wholly accurate in my understanding of it. I believe — I _know_ — it exists in all times that it has touched. Every part of it is aware of every other part of it in all times that it has touched. Anything that effects one part of it, effects all parts of it in all times that it has touched."

"A kind of… quantum entanglement," Spock observed. He lifted his hands to cover her shoulders.

"Exactly."

"Much like our connection that is not a bond, but joins us together in much the same way."

Yes," she conceded. "And now it is a part of me, although I am not truly integrated into the being. Still, there are moments when I become aware of something it knows. It appears to be precognition, but it is nothing more than the entanglement."

"And it does not allow you to age because it 'exists in all times and in none,' so you remain as you were the day it remade you."

She nodded, telling him, "Until it releases me. It was only supposed to last until I stopped the events T'Pau set into motion from destroying the Romulan Empire."

Spock's brow shot up.

"T'Pau wished to destroy Romulus?"

"Not Romulus. Only the Empire," T'Khio'ri explained. "She wanted to bring your brethren back to Vulcan."

"Fascinating." He smiled at her.

T'Khio'ri frowned. "Fascinating?"

"Yes. You have already agreed to bond with me, my love," he said, regarding her with intensely serious, but still warm eyes. "Did you think to hide this from me forever?"

"No," she told him. Had she still been human, she would have turned away or dropped her eyes, but in learning to navigate the changes in her mind and body, she had learned to face her apprehensions, and to overcome them. "Not forever. Only until I could tell you without overwhelming both of us with the strength of my fear.

"Already, I believed I had become less than the woman it had taken more than five decades for you to learn to love. I feared telling you that I was more changed than you could perceive for yourself. And I feared _being_ less than the woman I had been for nearly a century.

"You helped me accept the physical and mental changes, darling. You showed me that Nyota Uhura still existed beneath El'es T'Khio'ri's form. But still, I feared this other part of me — this part that I still don't completely understand."

Spock's hand drifted from its place on her shoulder to stroke her cheek and she leaned into it, and into the flood of love and compassion he sent through their link.

"And now you no longer fear sharing this part of yourself with me, my love?" he asked, his voice softer and warmer than was customary, even in their most intimate moments.

"Yes," she whispered. "The citizens of C'thia t'Surak helped me learn to embrace all that I am. They are different from those you knew on Vulcan, and they devoted many years to teaching me how to follow the path of logic without asking me to be less than who I have come to be."

He rested his forehead against hers, brought his other hand up to stroke her temple.

"I am also ready to accept all that you are, El'es T'Khio'ri," he promised her. "I have been since that moment I thought you were lost to me forever."

Her hands slid up to his contact points, and she stretched up so that her lips could meet his.

"I know that now," she murmured against her beloved's lips. "But I don't know what is expected of us in this universe."

* * *

**Now, December 2260(a), the Vulcan Colony**

"Kirk said he was actually afraid Spock would be tempted by Jessica Maddox," Uhura told her counterpart. She picked up the wafer of opalitum the Vulcan had just cut and slipped into her viewer. "He's so funny sometimes."

"Temptation is to be expected at some point," T'Khio'ri said. "It's a natural part of life. Surely you don't expect me to believe that you haven't even _looked_ at another man in the past three or four years. Not once?"

Uhura shrugged to hide her discomfort. "Well of course I've _looked_. I'm human! But no, I haven't really been tempted. It's not that I'm a saint or anything; it's more that Spock is… ."

The Vulcan lifted an eyebrow and smiled. "The best lover you've ever had?"

Once the shock wore off, the human found herself laughing. "Gods! Sometimes I forget you used to be me." She bent over her work again, smiling. "Yeah, Spock is the best I've ever had — not that there were so many before him. But even so, I honestly can't imagine finding anyone else to knock him out of first."

"That's because there probably _isn't_ anyone," her counterpart pointed out. "There wasn't for me. Eventually, I gave up trying."

Uhura's hands stilled. Her head snapped up to meet the other woman's eyes.

"Eventually?"

Sighing, T'Khio'ri switched on her optical drill and started cutting through the opalitum sample.

"You already know that my relationship did not begin as yours did," she said. "Spock told you that, even after we first came together physically, many years — decades, Nyota — passed before we truly became lovers. Do you think I was celibate that entire time?

Waiting around for the one I loved to notice me? If you did not already have Spock's commitment, would you wait through other women and times when he doesn't come to your bed?"

"Other women? I thought Spock was — I thought he decided to pursue kolinahr… ."

"Yes, after we completed our mission, he returned to Vulcan to do so," T'Khio'ri replied, "but before that there were many times when he was either physically attracted by or emotionally drawn to women we encountered. It was, in part at least, those incidents that led him to his choice."

"How could you stand it?" Uhura placed the wafer she'd been calibrating on the work surface. "You were human and you loved him, but you watched him falling in love, or in lust or in whatever. How did you deal with that?"

Though she didn't lose the air of serenity that so often reminded her t'dahsu that of the changes she had undergone, compassion softened T'Khio'ri's demeanor.

"I was a devoted Starfleet officer," she said gently. "My work came before any personal feelings I had for him. I _had_ to endure it. I couldn't fly about in a jealous rage or sit around feeling sorry for myself. There was work to be done, and I was proud of my ability to do my job better than anyone else could have done it.

"And quite honestly, Nyota, it was made easier because he always came to me in the end."

* * *

**Then, November 2269(p), the Enterprise**

Uhura tried to remember the last time she had been so relieved to end her shift. She chuckled to herself when she realized she couldn't. Between the captain "dying" (again!) at Spock's hand and then escaping the Romulans with the stolen cloaking device, she'd had more than enough adventure for one day.

"Well, you wanted the stars," she told herself as she rode the turbolift towards deck four. "You can't complain about what comes with them."

She knew most of the senior bridge crew would convene in the officers' mess to talk over the events of the day, but she wasn't really interested. Better to have a quiet night in her own quarters, she decided as she left the lift.

Her door swished open at the wave of her hand and she strode through, straight into the first officer's arms.

"Sir!" she exclaimed, jumping back. "You startled me. What are you doing in here?"

It was not time for her ka'athyra lesson — that wasn't for another two days — and she'd already delivered all of her reports to the captain. There was no reason for him to be in her rooms, unless… But surely that was still _years_ away. For both of them.

"My apologies, Lt. Uhura," he rumbled in that deep voice that so often touched her to her core. "I wished to speak with you about the repercussions of today's mission. There is one, in particular, which may affect you. I thought it best that we discuss this in privacy."

Her eyes widened. "Something that could affect _me_, Mr. Spock?"

"Yes, Nyota," he said.

He so rarely called her by her first name. _This is serious_, she told herself.

"Please, Spock, sit down," she offered, indicating a chair.

"I would prefer to stand," he told her. "However, if you wish to sit while I share this with you, you may do so."

Eying him warily — one had to be wary whenever one was invited to sit down before receiving news — she shook her head.

"Very well," he said and moved deeper into her quarters.

She followed, stopping in the center of her sitting area when he halted in her sleeping alcove and turned to face her.

"Starfleet Command ordered Captain Kirk and me to steal the cloaking device from the Romulan," he stated. "The captain pretended to be unfit for duty in order to facilitate the events which led up to his presumed death."

"I am aware of all that, Spock," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "How about you tell me something I _don't _know? Such as how anything that happened on that ship affects me."

He gave a curt nod and continued. "We both knew that there was a chance that one or both of us might not return from the mission."

"Oh, Spock, I—"

"I have not finished, Nyota," he interrupted quietly. "Conditions were more… favorable than we had anticipated. Circumstances allowed for me to become a distraction to the Romulan Commander."

Uhura felt her lips thin and she fought to keep herself from frowning. "Exactly _what_ kind of distraction were you, Mr. Spock?" she asked archly.

His own lips twitched and for a moment she thought, inside, he might be laughing at her. But when he walked back towards her, his face was entirely serious.

"She wanted me to be her… consort, Nyota. We touched one another here" he indicated his left hand "and here" he brushed his fingers against his own cheek "as prelude to what was to come. I did not wish to spend my life at her side, but her touch, as well as her beauty, did not leave me entirely unaffected.

"While I did not give in to temptation, I _was_ tempted," he told her. "And her actions have awakened in me a want — a _need_ — that I also did not expect.

"I could meditate and subdue this… desire, Lieutenant, but I find that I do not wish to do so. There is another, more pleasurable, way to eradicate this need, if you are amenable."

Uhura knew the moment he became aware of her comprehension. The very instant her mouth dropped open slightly, his back stiffened and he clasped his hands behind his back.

"Lt. Uhura, please feel under no obligation to accept my attentions," he said. "While I cannot claim to completely understand your position in this matter, I realize that what I have asked of you might not be considered… tolerable."

She stood in middle of the room, watching him. His formal posture was not congruent with his request. Nothing in his expression gave away his feelings about what he had just suggested they do.

Her eyes slid across his tunic, pulled tight by the hands clasped behind his back and now clinging to his well-defined pectoral muscles. She had touched that chest, twined her fingers in the dark hairs she knew lay beneath the blue fabric.

She looked up at his generous, chiseled lips. The same lips that had eagerly sought her own, as well as other, even more sensitive parts of her body. The lips that had brought her to the heights of ecstasy, time and time again.

Lifting her arms to drape them around his neck, Uhura pulled herself up against his Vulcan heat.

"Of course I will accept your attentions, Mr. Spock," she murmured in his ear.

And then his arms were slipping around her and the time for talking was done.

* * *

**Now, December 2260(a), the Vulcan Colony**

"Wait a minute. You said _yes_?" Noting that T'Khio'ri had continued her work as she spoke, Uhura picked up the opalitum wafer again. "Even after he told you what happened?"

T'Khio'ri shook her head at her young counterpart and left her station. "You are still so _young_. Sometimes I think you forget that human life is fleeting, in spite of what you have seen over the course of the past few years," the Vulcan woman told her. "I welcomed him when he came to me because I loved him. And because I did not want to look back some time in whatever future I had and think 'what if?'.

"I was nine years older than you are now, and I'd already lived through the death of our mother. I'd lost scores of crewmates and friends. Life is short, Nyota. I chose to do what felt right for me at the time."

Uhura considered that for a moment. Her t'dahsu was right. Life _was_ too fleeting to worry about petty jealousies. Then something else redirected her thoughts.

"If Spock and Kirk stole the cloaking device, and Scotty was able to integrate it into the Enterprise's deflector shields, why are we trying to build our own?"

T'Khio'ri smiled. "I know that Mr. Scott was able to render the device operational for our purposes — we would never have escaped the Romulan flagship otherwise — but I have no idea _how_ he was able to do so."

"But wouldn't Spock know? Wouldn't he have figured it out at some point?"

The Vulcan shook her head. "Not necessarily. And even if he did, I doubt he would share its workings with us. For the most part, he does try to honor the Prime Directive."

"But he _melded_ with this timeline's Kirk to get him to take over the Enterprise. Wasn't _that_ a violation of the Directive?"

"Yes," she told her, "and it was more than he felt comfortable doing. But time was of the essence; he saw no other alternative, Nyota. This is not similarly urgent."

Uhura's shoulders slumped a little. She knew T'Khio'ri was also correct in this.

"So what are we supposed to do?" she asked the other woman.

The Vulcan sheared another paper-thin piece of opalitum from the sample. "We keep working," she said.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry for the late posting; real life got in the way. Sixth chapter the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	7. Connections

**Now, December 2260(a), Decker's Landing on Vernos VI**

Spock carefully secured the small object Jessica Maddox had entrusted to his care as he walked across the square to where the captain and Leonard stood staring at him. The doctor's smug smile warned him to be wary. As much as he had come to respect the older man, and at times, even enjoy his company, the scientist was not unaware that the self-satisfied grin was usually a harbinger of trouble ahead.

He was two point one three meters away when Leonard gave in to a urge to laugh and Kirk elbowed their friend in the ribs. The doctor ceased laughing immediately and turned glaring eyes on the young captain. Spock did not roll his eyes at their antics.

"What's up, Spock?" Jim asked as he stopped in front of them.

Spock glanced at the deep blue Vernos VI sky.

"It's an expression," the captain explained sounding as if he were speaking to a small child. "From an early 20th century anima— oh, never mind. What's that?" He nodded to the science officer's hand.

"This," Spock told him, "is a toy, Jim."

Leonard snorted and muttered something that sounded like "the overgrown elf finally lost it."

"On the contrary, Doctor," Spock said. "I have only just found it in Ms. Maddox's lab.

"She told me it was invented by her grandfather, Dr. François Maddox, and was very popular with the traders who regularly visited Vernos VI until increases in violence around the Neutral Zone caused them to alter their routes roughly a decade ago.

"This disk employs rudimentary cloaking technology as part of its roll in a children's game. As Lt. Uhura is currently researching the feasibility of developing a more advanced method of concealment for Federation starships, I thought this would be of interest to her."

Jim smirked. "Funny how things like this keep popping up just when we need them, isn't it?" he quipped.

No one acknowledged him.

"Since when have you started calling her 'Lt. Uhura' again?" Leonard queried.

"That is solely in deference to Jim's presence," Spock told the doctor. "Ms. Maddox informs me that while Dr. Maddox refuses to share with us his method of manufacture, he has given his consent for me to attempt to back-engineer the device. If the information could possibly help move the lieutenant's research forward more rapidly, I would like her to be in receipt of it as quickly as possible."

McCoy laughed and slapped the half-Vulcan on the shoulder. "Afraid Command might order her to spend another six months with the pointy-ears if they catch wind of her side job?"

Spock looked at the doctor's hand on his person and raised an eyebrow. He gave up when Leonard continued to grin at him and refused to move it.

"I would not have used the term 'afraid,' Doctor," he said, "but your supposition is not wholly inaccurate. It would be preferable for Nyota to return to the Enterprise as scheduled."

James T. Kirk huffed out breath. "Why can't you just say you miss her?" he asked sulkily.

Spock turned to the captain and raised the other eyebrow. "I believe that is exactly what I just suggested, Jim."

"Maybe you'd better write her a little love note, while you're at it," Leonard suggested. "In fact, maybe you'd better do that _first_."

Settling his features into utter impassivity, Spock looked at his friend. "A love letter? What would be the purpose in that?" he wanted to know. "Nyota is fully aware of my regard for her. Discovering how the toy works would be a wiser use of my time, and be of more benefit to her, than my composing an epistle in order to tell her what she already knows would be."

McCoy smiled smugly again. "Now, as your future best man, I think it's only right that I remind you that you've already admitted to not understanding women very well," he said. "You haven't had visual contact with that woman in nearly a month. And it's been even longer than that since you were physically in her presence. You, her and the Lord only knows how long it's been since you were actually… _physical_ with her. Maybe a Vulcan doesn't mind waiting, but you can bet Ms. Uhura is missing you real bad by now."

Spock concentrated on keeping his embarrassment from announcing itself in the form of bright green ears while Jim silently mouthed _Best man_?

"I shall take your advice under consideration, Leonard," he said before turning and heading for the beam-up point, now located within the village limits.

_____________

Jim watched Spock dematerialize before rounding to glare at his best friend.

"Best man?" he demanded. "Why'd he ask _you_?"

Bones grimaced. "Because they expect you to marry them, stupid."

"Oh," Jim said, his ire evaporating as quickly as Spock's body had disappeared.

"Oh no!" came a voice from behind the doctor. Jim looked over Bones's shoulder to view the petite strawberry blonde who was hurrying from the community center, carrying a thick paper folder. "Damn! I was hoping to catch him," she said.

Spinning around, Bones looked at Jessica Maddox. "You needed Spock?"

"Yes," she told, glancing briefly at Jim before focusing her attention on the doctor. "I wanted to give him some notes I've compiled over the years. They're all about Grandda's inventions. I don't know how that toy he liked so much works, but I thought that maybe my notes would be of some use."

"Maybe," Bones said, sounding like he seriously doubted it. "He was in a real hurry to get back to the ship. Gotta write his girl a love letter, then get to work on figuring out your grandpa's toy so he can send her the specs."

Jim watched as most of the color drained from the pretty young woman's face.

"Love letter?" she repeated.

"Yeah," Bones replied relentlessly. "They haven't seen each other in ages. Can hardly stand it anymore."

"Maybe I can be of some assistance, Ms. Maddox," Jim gallantly cut in, turning on a full dose of the Kirk charm after aiming a quick glare at his friend. "I can deliver your notes to Spock, but if you don't mind, maybe a tour brief tour of your laboratory will help me understand what you do here."

He offered her an elbow, and she took it, smiling uncertainly into eyes he knew from experience were twinkling in a way most women found hard to resist.

"I'll catch up with you later, Bones," he tossed over his shoulder as he escorted Jessica Maddox back to the community center.

* * *

**Now, December 2260(a), the Vulcan Colony**

Wrapping up her final class for the day, Uhura smiled on the inside. Work on the communications network was progressing satisfactorily and the training of Vulcan communications specialists was proving easier now that they had become accustomed to human teaching methods. Using whatever time she has which wasn't committed to the Communications Ministry for research in a field outside her comfort zone had turned out to be good distraction. She was usually too busy to dwell on just how much she missed her absent fiancé.

A few words in Uncle Tabansi's ear had also ensured she wasn't limited to teaching the lower-level classes anymore, either. She allowed herself a brief outward smile as T'Dun approached her while the rest of the advanced students filed out of the lecture hall.

"It is pleasing to have you teach this class again, Nyota," the Vulcan woman told her.

Uhura schooled her features to not react to the unexpected statement. "Was Savensu Ehringer not a satisfactory instructor?" she asked.

T'Dun's face remained impassive as she replied. "He was able to impart the information required," she said, "but I believe that he was uncomfortable with the Vulcan demeanor and often spent a small portion of the class telling jokes in an attempt to help us 'loosen up.' While I found his actions to be interesting, if uninformed, many of my classmates believed that the time would have been better utilized either devoted to independent study or further lecturing."

Uhura had to choke back a laugh at the thought of Jeff Ehringer trying to get a class full of Vulcans to laugh at jokes that even his human colleagues rarely found amusing. She made do with another small smile.

"I am surprised that no one informed Minister Wakufunzi of this," she said. "All of his staff received extensive training before beginning this assignment. Your class should not have been subjected to his behavior."

"Someone did speak with your uncle." T'Dun cocked her head to the side. "We believed that was why you were once more our teacher."

Biting the inside of her lip, Uhura considered the other woman's revelation.

"I believed it was because I told Uncle Tabansi that I was not being sufficiently challenged," she admitted. Gathering up her belongings, she walked around lectern and hopped off the low dais to join T'Dun.

"Perhaps both were factors in his decision," her friend suggested.

Nodding, Uhura fell into step with the Vulcan as she walked towards the doors at the rear of the hall.

"T'Dun," she said when they were nearly halfway up the aisle, "I do not flatter myself to think that you merely stayed after class to tell me that you missed me." She let a teasing note slip into her voice, although she knew the Vulcan wouldn't have taken offense anyway.

"Actually, Nyota, over the past five weeks I have found that I prefer your company to its lack," T'Dun rejoined. "However, you are correct in thinking that informing you of this was not my sole purpose in seeking you out today. I have come to offer my assistance."

Uhura tilted her head in silent query.

"You say that you were not being sufficiently challenged by the work allotted to you since the arrival of Minister Wakufunzi and his subordinates," T'Dun explained, "yet I believe you and Ambassador T'Khio'ri have begun researching the possibility of developing a cloaking device for Federation starships."

Uhura swallowed. That wasn't supposed to be common knowledge. Not even Starfleet Command knew about her side project.

"What makes you think that?" she asked, wanting to kick herself for using such a lame response.

T'Dun stopped walking and stared at her intently. "You and the ambassador have been assigned a private laboratory at the Science Academy where several hundred kilograms of opalitum have been delivered. Your mate is serving on a starship near the Neutral Zone, where Romulan, and sometimes Klingon ships are known to be using such devices in what Ambassador Spock has told us is nine Terran years ahead of the time the Federation became aware of the technology in his own reality.

"I am a geologist, Nyota. I know the properties of opalitum. Why else would you and Ambassador T'Khio'ri be so interested in studying it, if not in hopes of developing a means to protect your mate?"

Uhura let a broad smile to spread across her face. "You are leaving out one important fact," she said. "Spock is in danger _now_. I cannot hope to develop such a device in time to protect him."

T'Dun's eyebrow lifted in what Uhura thought of as the Vulcan equivalent to a shrug. "You are human, Nyota," she said. "Is not 'hope springs eternal' the appropriate phrase?"

_____________

The work progressed more quickly with T'Dun's input and experience guiding them.

Her former profession made her privy to concepts and methods of processing the samples that even T'Khio'ri had been unaware of.

More importantly, she was another voice making suggestions in the lab. For all of their differences, T'Khio'ri and Uhura still shared extremely similar thought processes when approaching work.

"But if they had to decloak every time they needed to call for assistance, would not a significant advantage be lost anyway?" the human posited three days after her friend began working with them. "Even if the crew cloaked again immediately after sending out the call, it would be a simple thing for an enemy to calculate the maneuvers the crew would most likely employ next and, provided they had sufficient weaponry, fire in all probable locations."

"Nyota," T'Khio'ri said from her workstation, "are you forgetting that an enemy could just as easily intercept a distress call and identify its point of origin? Even if we were to discover a way to utilize subspace messaging while cloaked, it would still be dangerous for a ship to try it."

Huffing out a tiny sigh, Uhura bent over her work again.

"I am still learning about subspace technology, of course," T'Dun spoke up from her own place in the lab, "but would it not be possible to develop a system for projecting, within a given area, random bursts of electromagnetic waves that mimic communications frequencies? With a suitably adequate helmsperson, could not a ship use such a system to create a field of waves so large that an enemy ship would be confused and find the possible waste of firepower unequal to the likelihood of actually hitting the cloaked ship?"

T'Khio'ri's lips twitched. "If the ship was in any condition to employ evasive maneuvers and, if the enemy were Vulcan, that would work well," she said. "However, in order to develop such a system, we would need to have in place an algorithm complicated enough that the enemy could not easily track the pattern."

"And better encryption than we're currently using," Uhura put in. "I have been thinking about developing a new one that mimics natural space chatter. It would work well with the system T'Dun suggested."

"And it would require us to overcome two more obstacles," T'Khio'ri pointed out. "One, we would need to ensure that the imitation did not deviate too far from the natural noise occurring in whatever sector of space the ship was in, and two, we would need to develop a key that would allow the receiver to decipher what would likely be a randomly selected encryption.

"The obstacles can each be overcome mathematically, but doing so would take more time than any of the three of us has to spare to accomplish."

T'Dun turned from the console at her workstation.

"That is true, Ambassador," she told the older Vulcan. "But while we thee lack the time and the expertise to develop the requisite mathematics, Torak does not." She turned to Uhura and continued, "You have said that he is progressing more quickly than he previously did. Perhaps he could be persuaded to assist us in our endeavors?"

Caught between a desire to be successful and the thought of spending more time with one of her least favorite students, the human woman didn't answer right away.

"Did you not also say that he has ceased asking you 'impertinent questions,' Nyota?" T'Khio'ri asked.

Realizing that it would be illogical to argue, Uhura nodded her head.

"I will speak with him tonight," T'Dun promised.

The three went back to working silently, and Uhura tried not to think about why her friend expected to see Torak that night.

* * *

**Now, December 2260(a), the Enterprise**

_Dearest Nyota_, Spock's letter began.

In truth, it was not a letter so much as it was an audio recording. He did not wish to take a chance on the possibility of anyone else seeing his face as he recorded words expressing his deepest feelings for his beloved.

_Through our link, we are never truly apart, and yet it has been twenty-seven point eight Terran days since I last looked at your beautiful face. A picture of you is often in my thoughts, but I have found that memory does not compare favorably with actually being in your presence._

_As tedious as this mission has been, there have been many moments which have led to more thoughts and memories of you._

_There are moments when the nine point two five months that elapsed between the commencement of our romantic association and the consummation of our physical relationship comes to the forefront of my mind. The longing I feel now is similar in nature — I know that you are mine and that I am yours, but I am unable to indulge in the feel of your cool soft skin beneath my fingertips._

_Do you long for the same, Nyota? Do you fall asleep in your lonely bed, the memory of my body pressed against yours both a comfort and a small torture in the night?_

_My Nyota_…

He continued recording for another hour, telling himself that he could edit the missive later if needed.

* * *

**Now, December 2260(a), the Vulcan colony**

The weekly dinner with Uncle Tabansi and T'Khio'ri had become equally important to maintaining Uhura's sanity as was the extra work she used as a distraction from worrying about Spock.

Once a week, the three Wakufunzis came together to cook meals reminiscent of home in the communications minister's kitchen. They shared stories and memories of family that existed in both timelines and some that existed in only one or the other.

Tabansi learned of, and grieved for, the daughter, Ana, that he'd never had in this lifetime.

T'Khio'ri heard stories of a M'Umbha Uhura who had left the diplomatic corps after her son was born and had not died while on a mission for Starfleet Intelligence.

They all found strength in family.

It took four days for Spock's letter to arrive just before they began arranging the ingredients prior to preparing the meal.

Tabansi and T'Khio'ri made noises about not needing her assistance and urged Nyota to lock herself in her uncle's sleeping chamber while she listened to her message.

When she emerged more than an hour later, all three Wakufunzis sat down to eat, each basking in the joy emanating from the youngest of them.

* * *

**Now, December 2260(a), the Enterprise**

Bones glanced between the list of requests from the small team of medics living on Vernos VI and a list of medical stores they would need to replace when they visited Starbase 23 in mid-January. Although the colonists had been in sore need of a lot medicine and supplies, the Enterprise wasn't exactly in danger of running out over the next three weeks. He could spare a some extras for the little colony.

"We can spare another three med-tricorders for their clinic," he told his colleague. "Those'll probably last them six or seven years without even needing to be recalibrated. But Dr. Garvey tells me Ms. Maddox can take care of that if the need crops up. I'm gonna add a vaccine replicator and some starter stock to the mix. That'll come in handy — theirs are so outdated I amazed they didn't have a plague when we got here."

Medical Bay was under his jurisdiction, of course, but he knew from experience that when working for a bureaucracy, it was best to cover your ass. He also knew from experience that when it came to administrative work, Jim had the attention span of an infantile housefly. That was an improvement over the infantile gnat he'd been when they'd first shipped out, but Bones wasn't in the mood working with infantile flying insects of any variety.

So, he'd drafted Spock into taking inventory with him. The dedicated first officer could spend hours on the most excruciatingly boring tasks without losing his focus. Not a very exciting trait to have, but a useful one. Especially at times like this when Bones wanted to get the job done and get the hell away from this backwater planet that made his country home look like a megalopolis.

He waited for Spock to point out that Vernos VI hadn't had off-world visitors in approximately eight point something years. When the admonishment didn't come, he looked up from his lists.

The green-blooded devil was sitting so still, it took the doctor a moment to tell he as still breathing. His eyes were half closed, his right hand stopped halfway to the PADD he held in the left one.

And he was smiling.

"Spock!" he snapped.

"Yes, Doctor?" the first officer replied agreeably. _Too_ agreeably.

Bones stared at him for a moment before responding.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded.

"What do you mean, Leonard?" Apart for that damnable raised eyebrow, his face was a mask of innocent confusion.

"You were just _smiling_," Bones accused.

"Smiling," Spock parroted. "Was I?"

"Yes. You were," Bones stated with forced patience. "And I'd like to know why."

Spock was quiet, apparently debating whether or not he should answer.

"I believe Nyota has received my correspondence," he said at last. "She is… pleased."

Unable to hold back a self-satisfied grin, Bones said, "You're welcome."

"Thank you, Leonard."

* * *

**A/N:** Seventh chapter the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	8. Consequences

**Now: January 2261****(a)****, the Enterprise**

It was fortunate, Spock determined, that leaving Vernos VI presented him an opportunity to conduct near-real-time communications with the Vulcan colony. For four standards hours, the Enterprise would travel through a sector that would afford him the chance to contact the planet with a delay that lasted only between two point two and six point nine seconds. Had circumstances been almost anything but what they were, he would have waited until the ship reached Starbase 23, but as things stood, he did not believe it wise to tarry.

In the two weeks since she had received his "letter" Nyota had been experiencing what he could only feel were increasingly, and illogically… ecstatic emotions. While at first he had been pleased with her reaction, as the days continued to pass, he found himself becoming somewhat apprehensive.

They were, after all, still parted. It was not reasonable to think that his recording continued to have such an effect on his beloved. He knew he needed a better assessment of her mental and emotional state than what he could glean from their link.

"Why didn't you contact Nyota about your concerns on this matter?" his t'dahsu asked from the viewscreen.

Spock shifted uncomfortably in his seat — he had noticed he was apt to display more of his own emotional state when in the presence of his older self — and debated how best to answer the question. There was no question that Ambassador Spock would understand his inclination, even if his counterpart did not agree with the actions he took. Still, he had no desire to engage in a philosophical debate on the merits of "going straight to the source." There were answers he needed and he was certain the ambassador was best suited to provide them.

"My specific thoughts on the issue are delicate in nature," he said, having decided that bald honesty was the correct path. "Additionally, I am not certain that my ashayam would be able to adequately reply to my queries."

The elder Spock's eyebrow rose slowly. "Too delicate to discuss with your mate?"

The commander shifted in his seat again. "Not in and of itself, no, but combined with her possible lack of knowledge pertaining to the subject, I thought it might be unwise to contact her directly before speaking with you."

A look of comprehension crossed the old half-Vulcan's face. "Ah," he said, "then we are talking about Pon farr again."

Spock gave a short nod of agreement.

"Has your Time come early, then?" his counterpart wanted to know.

Unable to hide his surprise, the younger man's eyebrow flew up.

"No," he said. "It has not. But, surely you have noticed Nyota's uncharacteristically ebullient demeanor over the past two weeks? I have not sensed such emotions from her for such an extended period of time since the first three months of our relationship."

To his confusion, and not inconsiderable annoyance, his t'dahsu offered a small smile. Before he could express either emotion, however, the old man was speaking again.

"Your k'diwa is experiencing a phenomenon which humans call 'walking on cloud nine,'" he explained. "It is nothing to be concerned about, I can assure you. She is merely happy, Spock. I believe you were the cause of that happiness."

"It has been two weeks since she received my correspondence," Spock countered. "Is it not unusual for a human woman to remain in such a state for so long on the strength of one recorded message, however romantic in nature it might have been?"

He was certain the ambassador was resisting an urge to laugh. "Please, share the humor with me, t'dahsu," he prompted.

"You would not likely find my thought to be very humorous," the elder admitted. "I was given to understand, however — that is to say, T'Khio'ri believes — that your message to Nyota was not simply of a 'romantic' nature. 'Erotic' was the word my k'diwa used when she asked me why I had not sent her something similar."

Spock felt his ears going green. "Nyota shared the message with her t'dahsu?"

At that the ambassador did laugh, albeit softly.

"No," he assured Spock. "While they are not as closely tied as you and I were, they _do_ share a connection of sorts. T'Khio'ri is sensitive to Nyota's stronger emotions."

"And she has not indicated that there is cause to worry that Nyota might be approaching a Time of her own?"

Ambassador Spock's face turned grim.

"She has not," he said after a lengthy pause. "My beloved, better than anyone else, would recognize the signs of the Pon farr in a human woman."

* * *

**Then, December 2268(p), the Enterprise**

"Why the hell did you say yes, you pointy-eared asshole?" McCoy snarled across his desk.

"At the time, I was not in a position, nor was I in any _condition_, to refuse her," the science officer replied calmly.

McCoy sighed and raked a hand through his dark hair. He stared down at his desk and audibly began to regulate his breathing. After fifteen point eight seconds had elapsed, he looked up again. He respiration rate had not altered considerably.

"Look, I don't care about what two senior officers do together when they're off-duty, Spock," he said. "That's their business. But this was a medical matter. Why didn't either of you come to me? Why'd you wait nearly two and a half years to let me know?"

"I did suggest informing you about what had transpired after the fact, but refrained from doing so at Lt. Uhura's request."

"At her reque— ? What was she thinking, asking you to keep something like this from medical personnel? And why the hell did you agree?" The doctor's breathing had become severely accelerated again.

Finding the question to have been ridiculously short-sighted, Spock raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side.

"The lieutenant is aware of the contemptuous remarks made by you, and of views held by much of the crew, about your head nurse because of Miss Chapel's regard for me," he pointed out. "She did not intend to become the object of similarly derisive comments."

"That's different, and you know it!" McCoy exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "Everybody likes Miz Uhura, and it's not like doing a colleague the favor of _saving his life_ is comparable to publicly mooning over a man who's never gonna look at you twice!"

"You are mistaken, doctor. The two situations are dissimilar only in that Lt. Uhura did not share her affection for me with the entire crew, and in the fact that I do not reciprocate Miss Chapel's attraction to me. Nor have I ever done so."

The doctor resumed his seat, appearing stunned. He propped his elbows on his desk and stared at his entwined fingers.

"Damn," he swore softly without looking up. "You mean to say, all this time, Uhura's been sweet on you and none of the rest of us ever had a clue." It wasn't entirely a question.

"Lt. Uhura knows the value of discretion," Spock pointed out. McCoy looked up abruptly at tiny hint of admiration the half-Vulcan allowed to slip into his voice.

Sighing again, McCoy looked up at him once more. "You know, Spock, maybe this would have been easier if Christine had been the one knocking on your door that night."

"Nurse Chapel would not have gained entry to my quarters without using her medical override. Nor do I believe that she would have been as successful in quelling the fever as Lt. Uhura proved to be," Spock countered. "As I have stated, I am not attracted to Miss Chapel."

The doctor's eyebrows shot up. "But you've got the hots for Uhura?"

Spock's lips thinned, but stopped short of actually pulling down into a frown.

"Nyota Uhura is the female crewmember with whom I am best acquainted. I also find her to be both inordinately intelligent and physically desirable," he corrected. "I would not, however, describe my opinion of the lieutenant as having 'the hots for' her. I consider her to be a friend and would never demean her in such a manner."

"No, but you'll let her creep into your bed in the middle of the night to have her wicked way with you."

"As you stated, doctor, it was a medical matter. And as _I_ stated, I was not in a position to refuse what she offered."

Spock knew that this was the closest McCoy had seen him to being emotionally undone since they had believed him to be recovered from his Pon farr. He hoped the significance of the observation would not be lost on the skilled doctor.

"Look, Spock, I'm not trying to put Miss Uhura down. Lord knows I'd be hard-pressed to tell her 'no,' myself," McCoy said in placating tones. "And if it had been a matter of life or death, I doubt I'd even try very hard. But didn't you ever stop to think, if not during, then after, at least, that there might be side effects?"

"No." Spock's face became impassive again. "It did not. I did not bond with her during my Time. Moreover, while something like this might have been expected with a Vulcan woman, I was not privy to any data suggesting that other species could be similarly affected."

"I'm guessing that such data would be pretty much lacking seeing as how your people are so damned tight-lipped about everything, and because your parents are the only human-Vulcan couple we know of."

"Precisely, Doctor."

_____________

Discussing treatment options did not take long; there were none that McCoy knew of, and Lt. Uhura did not have enough time to wait while he found one.

"Looks like the cure is gonna have to be the same as the vector of transmission," he conceded derisively. "I just hope you two aren't going to be re-infecting each other, over and over again."

Spock decided that the time was not right for him to respond to the doctor's sarcasm. "That particular outcome is doubtful, Leonard," he said instead.

"Aww, shit!" The human man thrust a hand through his hair again.

"Doctor?" the first officer queried, raising a brow at the sudden outburst.

"Nurse Chapel," McCoy replied dryly.

"Ah," said Spock.

"I wouldn't put it past Ms. Uhura to have anpoon hidden in her biobed."

"Ahn-woon," Spock corrected.

"Whatever," muttered the doctor. He stabbed finger on his desktop communicator. "Nurse Chapel," he barked, "I need to see you in my office now!"

Spock stood to leave. "While you are distracting Ms. Chapel, I will go check on Lt. Uhura."

McCoy looked up and stared at him for a long moment. "I'll arrange for you two to have one of the quarantine rooms," he said finally.

Spock stared back until the door chime sounded. "Thank you, Doctor," he said, then turned and left the room as Christine Chapel entered.

* * *

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

"Leonard approved of this?" the young commander asked, his head tilted in curiosity. "And Lt. Uhura agreed, as well?"

Spock felt a moment of sadness wash through him. At the time, he had thought of himself as emotionally detached from the situation. He had known better before the first day was over.

"Neither of them had very much choice in the matter," he told his t'dahsu. "And although at the time I could not have admitted it, I would not have allowed any other man to attempt to effect a cure in her."

* * *

**Then: December 2268(p), the Enterprise**

"I'm going to die, aren't I, Mr. Spock?" she whispered as soon as he reached her side.

Already, he noted, excessive perspiration made her loosened hair cling to her scalp and forehead. He reached over to push it back from her face and found she was nearly as warm as a Vulcan.

"As far as I am aware, no member of this crew is immortal, Lieutenant."

"_Do not pretend you miscomprehended my meaning_," she said, switching to his native language. Even in the midst of her Time, she sought circumspection, he reflected_. _"_The fever will grow and I will die, burning with lust._"

"_I remain in your debt, and will not allow that to happen, Lieutenant,_" he replied in the same language.

Her eyes softened and she lifted a hand towards him, but let it drop to her side before making contact.

"This isn't your fault," she said in sad, quiet Standard.

Again, he wanted to push back her hair, to stroke her face, to let her know that he would not allow her to die. Her desire to remain discreet forced him to use words, instead.

"There can be no question that your affliction is the result of the actions you took in order to save my life, Nyota," he replied, as she had, in Standard. "I will not stand aside and refuse to do the same for you."

"You don't have to do that. I know that it's… difficult for you. This… treatment… it can't be what you want to do."

He would not risk having his answer overheard and understood. He owed her that much and more.

"_You believe I find the idea of engaging in sexual relations with you distasteful, but you are mistaken_," he told her in Vulcan. "_Did you not wonder why you came to me that night? Did you not understand that I called for you as I burned?_"

She gripped the sheets on the biobed, seemingly in an effort to keep from touching him.

"_I knew_," she gasped in a low whisper."_I heard your call and I went to you_."

"_But you did not know_ why_ I called to you_?" he asked gently.

Her eyes clouded for a moment for she focused with what appeared to be considerable effort, and he wanted to touch her tightly clenched hands, to offer her reassurance and comfort, but he knew that her current state was more likely to pull him into her fever than his calm was likely to cool her need.

"_I assumed it was because you were aware of my esteem for you,_" she told him.

"_You are not alone in harboring such feelings for me,_" he pointed out matter-of-factly.

In accord, both glanced over to the desk where the tall blonde head nurse usually met with incoming patients. Uhura smiled.

"_Yes, but you would not have been able to convince the nurse to leave you in peace afterwards_."

The hint of humor in her tone eased some of his concern, but still, he wished that McCoy would arrive soon to tell them that the isolation chamber had been readied. Deciding to take the risk, Spock lowered his shields and stroked two fingers across the back of her hand to allow her to feel the amusement he shared with her. Then she started as he shared something else with her.

"_That is a valid consideration,_" he murmured as she chuckled softly, "_but as I was incapable of weighing the potential consequences of my actions at the moment I chose to call for you, it had no bearing on my choice._"

Uhura stared at the science officer without speaking, certain that he would feel her confusion through the fingers that still touched her hand.

"_I burned for_ you_, Nyota. My body needed _yours_ in order to quench the fever_," he told her, confirming with words the feeling her had transmitted moments earlier. "_Did you not understand that was why I needed you for such a long time_?"

"_I was available_," she protested, and he realized that she did it to protect herself. That she feared that the torrent of emotion raging through her body would fool her into believing he loved her in return if she allowed herself to believe he desired her. "_You knew I would not ask for more, as the nurse would have done._"

"_I cannot claim to have acted in so logical a manner, Nyota_," he told her. "_I called you because my body burned to meet yours._"

He did not need the temporary link engendered by their contact to know that his words had disappointed and reassured her at the same time. Her emotions were vividly written across her beautiful face.

"What if it doesn't work?" she asked in Standard. "I'm not Vulcan — it might not work for me."

Spock refused to believe that it would not and allowed his conviction to translate through his fingers on her hand.

"What if it doesn't?" she asked more insistently.

He closed her entire hand in his and leaned closer to the bed. "If it does not work, Lieutenant, Dr. McCoy and I will do everything in our power to ensure you are cured."

* * *

**A/N:** Eighth chapter the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	9. Truths

**Now: January 2261(a), the Enterprise**

"There is no need for you to be concerned about this, Spock," his elder self assured him. "Her emotional state, though different from what you have become accustomed to, is stable; her cognitive function continues to be exemplary; her behavior has been no more irrational than that which might be expected of a human woman — with the exception, of course, of her continued patience with your own needless anxiety."

Spock absorbed the information in silence.

The ambassador gave his head a slight shake and one corner of his mouth ticked up two millimeters.

"You should contact her and examine her condition for yourself," he said when Spock did not speak.

Nodding, the younger half-Vulcan said, "I intended to do so immediately after speaking with you. At this time, she is still working with your mate in their laboratory."

"She is not, Commander," Ambassador T'Khio'ri told him as she entered the room. She came to a halt at her lover's side and offered Spock a smile that was reminiscent of his beloved's. "We ceased working early because your time is short. Nyota is undoubtedly already in her quarters, awaiting you.

"For your sake, she has been trying _not_ to be so happy. But she is a human woman and she is in love. You must make allowances. Make sure you let her know how much you appreciate her tolerance of your persistent nervousness."

He realized that she was teasing him, and belatedly grasping his t'dahsu's own attempt at teasing, Spock nearly smiled as he said his farewells to the couple.

* * *

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

"It is almost as if they are our own children," T'Khio'ri told her ashayam and allowed him to pull her into his lap. "I hope we do as well with the babies as we have done with those two."

She felt him stiffen for the briefest moment before his arms tightened around her. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling deeply before speaking.

"There is no guarantee that we shall be able to conceive, my love," he whispered.

Pushing away from him, she lifted her hands to grasp his face.

"We _will_ make children, Spock," she promised him. "But even if you cannot yet accept what I know as truth, I see no reason why we should not continue to practice."

Both corners of Spock's lips, and his right eyebrow, ticked up.

"Raising Spock and Uhura?" he teased.

T'Khio'ri bent her head until her mouth hovered just above his. The feel of his warm breath against her lips sent delicious tremors cavorting throughout her body. She sucked in a breath of her own.

"And making little Spocks and little Uhuras, ashayam," she murmured.

His reaction was instantaneous and not unexpected. She lost herself in the feel of his mouth against hers, the heat of his body against hers and his hardening lok beneath her bottom. Humming in time with the onslaught of his lips and tongue, she buried her fingers into his hair.

But then he stopped and pulled away, which was entirely unexpected.

"What is it?" she asked, concerned both by his sudden absence and his suddenly shielding of what he was feeling. She sat very still in the circle of his arms. "Tell me, ashayam."

His dark eyes closed for a moment before he spoke.

"I was thinking of your first Time," he told her. "Spock's fears for Nyota reminded me of the way I behaved and of what came after."

A rush of love and sympathy swam up into T'Khio'ri. She dragged her fingers down to his face and lifted, forcing him to look into her eyes.

"You saved my life, Spock," she stated, her voice almost fierce in its intensity. "There was no shame in what you did, or even in why you were forced to do it."

She felt him lower his shields and knew that he was ashamed anyway.

"You offered me such a beautiful gift, my love, and I was not capable of accepting it." Regret, as wasteful an emotion as it was, colored his words.

T'Khio'ri gripped harder when he would have closed his eyes.

"You have accepted it now," she pointed out. "Does anything else matter now that this is so?"

His right hand crept up from around her waist to stroke her smooth brown cheek.

"You deserved better _then_," he said solemnly.

Her hand moved to his contact points, opening her mind to share with him her memories of a time long past, inviting him to do the same. Then, crushing his lips under hers, she replied in the only way she was capable at the moment.

* * *

**Then: December 2268(p), the Enterprise**

McCoy approached the biobed and quietly told the first officer that the quarantine room was ready. He'd assured his curious staff that the ailing lieutenant was not contagious, but that her illness required privacy and Mr. Spock's telepathic abilities to effect a cure. None had questioned him further.

_____________

A muted sense relief washed through Spock and into Uhura as McCoy helped him prepare her to be moved. He could feel her reluctance to release his hand and he contemplated carrying her there in his arms. Quickly dismissing the notion, he instead eased her into the mobile chair the doctor provided. Keeping a hand on her left shoulder, he followed behind the chair as it moved toward the seclusion of the isolation chamber.

Once the doors hissed closed behind the three of them, the doctor turned to address him.

"How long?" McCoy wanted to know. The man's voice held none of its usual bluster or sarcasm.

"I do not know," Spock answered truthfully. "She is human. How long has she been experiencing symptoms?"

"Two days, that she recognizes. She thought it was a twenty-four hour bug at first." The doctor shook his head. "By the time she came to me, I think she already knew what was going on. She told me to send for you even before all her tests were done."

The half-human tried not to give in to the sense of helplessness that could easily overtake him if he allowed it.

"I do not know," he repeated, turning towards the woman sitting, half slumped in the mobile chair. "We can only hope that her promptness in seeking out medical attention will make this ordeal less… onerous for her."

_____________

He lifted her into his arms and placed her onto the new bed. A longing that felt like pain threatened to rip her apart when he withdrew and straightened up again. She heard the sound of his voice, and then Leonard's replying, but she was unable to make sense of their words through the haze of her need.

"Spock," she croaked, attempting to sit up, to open her eyes, to go to him.

She heard him speak again, and then, she thought, the hissing of the door sounded twice.

His next words were clear and carried the promise of an end to her agony.

"Computer," he ordered, "lock door and engage soundproofing."

She reached for him.

_____________

Spock knew he could curb his own reactions to her need for him — the raw fixation that had consumed him during his own Time was absent — but he also accepted that if Uhura was feeling now anything like what he felt then, there was a very likely possibility that she would lack the strength to temper her urges.

He sat in the room's single chair and pulled off his boots.

Already, she was writhing on the bed, making unintelligible noises that were at odds with the capable and well-spoken communications officer he knew her to be.

"Please," he managed to understand her say. Her wide dark eyes were fixed on him, her hand reaching out.

This first time, he realized, there would be no time for the gentle coaxing human women usually required. He would not be able to give the tenderness this woman, to whom he owed his life, deserved.

Stripping his tunic and shirt over his head as he walked, he was at her side in three point two seconds.

She gasped, her eyes fixed on his naked torso, and reached out once he was within touching distance. The hand she held up made contact with his skin and slid up into the hair covering his chest. He gasped as well when his lowered shields allowed her need to instantly flood into him.

_She deserves tenderness_, he thought again, even as he untied the shoulder straps to her sickbay shirt and eased it down to expose her glorious breasts.

Her inhalation was sharp and she arched her back, both facilitating the removal of the shirt and optimizing his own view of her alluring body.

"Please," she choked out again, and his head fell, almost of its own accord, until he could press his mouth against her skin.

With his shields fully own, there was no barrier to keep him from knowing that his actions inflamed her even as they soothed. His trousers became uncomfortable as he became inflamed, himself.

Halting his ministrations, he ignored her protests while he tore open the closure and shoved the pants down his thighs.

"Soon, Nyota," he crooned, stepping out of the garment.

Fixing her gaze on a point below his waist, she licked her generous lips and reached out again.

He was on the bed in less than a second.

_____________

His heat seared her skin and she welcomed it with everything that was Nyota Uhura. Grabbing at whatever she could reach, she urged him on, her mind screaming for his body to join with hers and appease the tortuous _want_ that was becoming all that she knew.

And then, he was braced on his knees and elbows, and then he was there with her. She reveled in the sensation that built upon sensation, promising a completion that would burn away any memory she had of other lovers, that would obliterate any desire she had for making new memories.

"Please," she cried out, not certain what she was asking for.

He responded by covering her mouth with his, his tongue thrusting against hers.

Without knowing why, she grasped one of his hands and yanked it up to her temple, nearly overbalancing him in the process.

He did not lose his rhythm, though he resisted the tug of her hand on his.

"Please," she said again, this time the word was a whispered plea.

Spock touched her, and suddenly there he _was_.

She could feel the relative cool of her body around his.

She could sense his desire beating against the order he believed his mind must maintain. She could feel his guilt at having brought her to this moment. She could feel the pleasure he took from her body. She could feel his wonder at the pleasure she took from him.

She heard her voice in his ears, crying out her joy and pleasure and love as a thousand colors exploded behind her eyes and she rose up from the bed, beyond the room and the Enterprise and raced across the universe with the stars.

_____________

Spock lay on his back, the tiny form of Nyota Uhura still wrapped around his body. He'd tried to disentangle himself from her for fear that the weight of his denser mass would prove injurious to her, but she had not wanted to let him go, and he had been disinclined to force the issue. He had rolled them both over instead, holding her close, stroking her back as she slept.

He had known she loved him. That fact, as he had told the doctor, was part of why he had sought her out when the kal-if-fee had failed to cure his plak tow. He had known that she loved him, but until the moment of her climax, he had not understood the meaning of her love.

"It's not as simple as taking friendship and adding a dash of desire," she had told him the one time he had asked her about it. "Not even if it's a _good_, _close_ friendship and there's an ocean of desire. There's more to it than that, Mr. Spock. It's irrational and can't be explained in logical terms."

She had been correct, he reflected, stroking the skin of the woman currently sleeping on top of him. What she felt for him could not be explained through anything but the fanciful words humans often employed to describe the emotion.

It was as unlike the affection he held for his mother as blue and green Earth was unlike red Vulcan.

She had also been right about friendship and desire. He considered her to be a friend — one of his closest, and he certainly desired her — but he did not feel the same deep-seated need to _know_ her, to connect with her, to protect her, to simply be in her presence that he now knew she felt for him. He wondered if he was even capable of such a thing.

Her love was separate from the need of her Time. The love had been deeper than the surface compulsion of the biological imperative. Her love was a part of her memories, a part of her everyday life. It was a part of Nyota Uhura.

_She deserves better than this_, he thought again.

For the first time in since he had left Vulcan for a career in Starfleet, he began to seriously consider the merits of undergoing the ritual of kolinahr.

_____________

He was meditating, she realized as she opened her eyes.

Slowly, carefully, hoping to avoid disturbing him, she pried herself away from the addictive heat of his skin. She slid off the bed and padded over to the refresher.

As quietly as she could manage, and without looking into the small mirror mounted above the sink she began washing away the signs of the afternoon's activities. She was thankful that the quarantine room had been provided with fixtures that used real water .

Fuzzy images of what had transpired slipped in and out of her consciousness while she ran a cool wet cloth over her body.

Without warning, a clear memory of what she had shown him, and his fear and awe of it, stabbed her mind.

Panicking, she dropped the cloth and swiftly left the 'fresher.

Her eyes darted around the room until she found first her sickbay sleepers in a crumpled heap near the bed, and then a pile of clothing that proved to be two clean uniforms — the tunics science blue and engineering red — resting on a small table next to a chair.

She was reaching for the red when Spock said, "I would not advise that, Nyota."

Looking over to the bed, she saw that he was watching her. She swallowed, but said nothing.

"We do not know if your Time has reached its conclusion," he explained. "It would be inadvisable for you to attempt to leave before you are fully… cured."

Every bone in her body seemed to melt, her muscles became useless. She sank to the floor beside the chair.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, unable to look away from him, even as the tears gathering in her eyes began to obscure her vision. "I'm sorry."

She didn't see him rise from the bed, but she heard him approach, felt his heat come closer.

He tipped her face up to his.

"Why are you apologizing, Ms. Uhura?"

Flinching at the semi-formal, though not-unusual, address, she pulled her chin from his hands.

"I shamed you," she whispered to the wall. "I made you see what I feel and it embarrassed you."

"Nyota," he said, sinking to the floor beside her, "there is no shame in what you feel and offer freely. If you sensed shame in me, it is only because I am incapable of offering you the same."

She turned to look at him then, and was surprised by the sadness and longing she saw there. _You are wrong_, she thought but didn't say. _You are not incapable at all_.

She felt the mindless _need_ growing in her again — Spock had been right to say she should wait—and she reached out a hand, allowing him to pull her into his lap, and his lips to find hers.

And she allowed him to be gentle and show tenderness this time, because the need was not as great and she could still think some of the time and she could feel _all_ of the time, and what she sensed from him felt a little bit like the beginnings of love.

* * *

**Now: January 2261(a), the Enterprise**

Her smiling face nearly took his breath away. It had been too long since he had seen it in anything beyond his memories.

"The specs you sent were perfect, Spock!" she exclaimed as soon as contact was established. "They've helped us so much. Once we received them we were able to move from just testing variables in the properties of opalitum for achieving a negative refractive index to actively testing the value of such indices in a real environment. You can't imagine how far forward it's moved us!"

Suddenly satisfied that her happiness was real, Spock felt his lips twitching up and didn't stop the grin from forming on his face.

"On the contrary, I _can_ imagine, beloved," he told her dryly. "I calculate that my accidental discovery has saved you and Ambassador T'Khio'ri approximately four months of research."

She laughed at his teasing and launched immediately into updating him on her progress. He found his own joy in her enthusiasm for her work, and in her growing affection for her t'dahsu and her Vulcan friend, T'Dun.

"But, seriously, k'diwa, every day I want to scream when I see her and Torak together," she concluded. "I thought that with her affinity for humans… "

She trailed off and he knew what she had left unsaid.

"Although my father will have to find a new mate, eventually, ashayam, perhaps it would be prudent to allow him to find her himself," he chided gently.

She frowned, biting her lip in a way that made him wish that her teeth belonged to him even as he wished for the return of her smiles.

"I know," she told him. "That's what I keep telling myself. But she reminds me so much of— "

She cut herself off again, this time far more abruptly.

"Of my mother?" he prompted. "I, too, noticed the resemblance when I was in her company. However she is much more… "

"Vulcan?" she finished for him. "Yes. She's like a Vulcan Amanda Grayson, which is probably why I like her so much. And also why I've vowed not to play match-maker."

Spock allowed himself a small, sad smile. He had no wish to replace his mother in his father's life, but what he had said was true; Sarek would be expected to bond again eventually. Most likely, the Council would ask him to do it sooner rather than later. He was surprised they had not demanded it already.

"There is wisdom in your decision, beloved," he told her. "But there is also wisdom in ensuring 'a Vulcan Amanda Grayson' finds a mate that fully appreciates her finer qualities.

"However, I did not contact you in order to speak of my father's marital possibilities."

He and his mate spent the next hour exploring far more pleasing topics.

* * *

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

T'Khio'ri slipped her hand beneath the open collar of his tunic and traced her fingers through the soft hair lightly furring his muscled chest. His skin had become papery with age — a gift of his human heritage — but the flesh underneath was still hard. She sighed and dipped her head to flick her tongue across his neck.

"You were starting to love me even then, ashayam," she murmured into his warm skin. "Although you didn't know it, I could feel it beginning."

Spock leaned into her touch, growling softly. She shifted in his lap, feeling him twitch with her movement. Smiling, she raised her head again to capture his lips again.

When he began to lift her up and stand, intending, she knew, to carry her to their sleeping chamber, she stopped him with a gentle nip at his chin.

"No," she ordered. "Here."

He raised an eyebrow at her and she nearly laughed.

Instead, she rose from her seat, deftly avoiding his wandering hands, and quickly shed her tunic and trousers.

"Right there," she told him, indicating the chair he still occupied.

His own smile matched hers as he swiftly loosened the drawstrings of his own pants and, lifting his hips a mere centimeter, shoved them to his bare feet.

Stepping within reach once more, she raised her hand to his contact points. When he did the same, T'Khio'ri made him hers and lost herself in Spock again.

* * *

**A/N:** Ninth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays. Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

**EDIT** **12/16/09**: I adapted this chapter from an M-rated version posted at the Spock_Uhura comm at livejournal. When I posted here last night I hadn't quite gotten rid of the racier bits. Fixed that today.

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	10. Scrutiny

**Now: January 2261(a), the Enterprise**

_Life is good_, Jim Kirk told himself as his gaze slid over the faces of the men gathered around the round table in his quarters. Maybe they weren't exactly seeking out new life and new civilization yet, but at least they weren't babysitting ambassadors and ferrying supplies back and forth to outposts whose commanders thought they were too good for the Federation.

Led by Bones, who for some reason was milking his role as future best man for all it was worth — probably trying to rattle the notoriously stoic first officer — his friends were throwing bits of advice about women at Spock.

"If a voman like Lt. Uhura was luffing me," Pavel Chekov announced to the group, while carefully avoiding making eye-contact with the science officer, "I vould newwer allow her to belief dat I vas not utterly dewoted to her pleasure. Ewwerthing I did, I vould do in her honor. She vould newwer leaf Mr. Saunders to do her job because of me."

Jim suspected the kid might have been hitting the vodka harder than the rest of them realized. The feral look that briefly replaced the Vulcan's normally placid expression didn't have an effect.

"You may not haff known this, but Ms. Uhura truly embodies the classic ideal of femininity," the Russian youngster continued. "Do not let her delicious cinnamony skin fool you, gentlemen. Even if Mr. Spock had not already confirmed it, her beauty and intelligence vould haff told me that she vas descended from a great Russian voman!"

Chekov's advice wasn't welcome. "Maybe by the time Spock and Ms. Uhura are ready to marry off their grandbabies, you'll be old enough to grow a beard," McCoy told him. "Until then, shut up! Children have no business talking about how to please a beautiful woman."

Jim swallowed a laugh and snuck a quick peak at Spock from the corner of his eye. He thought his first officer was holding back a smile at the younger man's expense. No one else was. Scotty and Sulu were laughing so hard, tears were pouring out of the helmsman's eyes, and the engineer had choked on his whisky. _Amateurs_.

Of course, the captain had been banned from the discussion from the start. "No offense intended, Jim," the doctor had told him in tones that said he clearly _did_ intend to offend, "but he plans on marrying the girl, not using her as a bed-warmer for a couple of days."

_Life is fucking great_, he amended as his head filled with thoughts of a gorgeous red-headed scientist who didn't mind getting to know a brilliant starship captain after learning that a certain half-Vulcan science officer was well and truly taken.

There was just something about redheads.

Realizing it was his turn, he tossed a half-dozen foil-wrapped cubes at the center of the table. His hand was shit, but the all the guys were preoccupied with their conversation. Bluffing them would be like taking candy from a baby.

Bones's eyes widened at his action. "High stakes, Jim," he observed reprovingly.

Jim grinned, but said nothing.

"Vhat is dat?" Chekov asked, reaching over to pick up one of the cubes. Bones slapped his hand and the young tactical officer quickly snatched it back and hid it in his lap. "I vas only looking," he muttered not quite under his breath.

Sulu hid a laugh behind his cards. Spock's expression didn't change at all.

"That, my young friend," Bones began, "is genuine cold-synthesized Maytecin theobromatl."

"It is like chocolate?" Chekov wanted to know.

"Better than chocolate," Bones said with a lascivious smile that rivaled the best Jim could offer.

The captain grinned, too. _Hell yeah it was better than chocolate_. Spock, he noticed, looked intrigued.

"The confection is prepared from an extraction of the Theobroma _cacao_/Theobroma _bicolor_ hybrid known as Theobroma _theobromus_, is it not?" he asked.

"No," Hiraku chimed in. "This stuff is different. It's made from a Theobroma _grandiflorum_/Theobroma _theobromus_ hybrid called Theobroma _theobromi_ _theobromi_. It was actually first bred by Gary Vieira, a botanist who read your mother's paper on Theobroma _theobromus_ and decided to pick up where she left off.

"He wrote that the notes she made available were so extensive, his own research practically 'conducted itself.' It's a shame she gave up before she found what she was looking for. This stuff supposedly meets all the chemical goals she outlined, _and_ has the added benefit that it drives human women wild."

Now Jim was eager to know how Spock would react to _that_. He was disappointed to see no reaction at all.

"Your mom tried to make a sexier chocolate?" he prodded, although he already knew the answer to his question. In an attempt to understand her son better, Kirk had read Amanda Grayson's research, too.

Spock's face was smooth, but his eyes would have given Uhura's death-stare a run for its money as he turned to face him.

"She was attempting to create a chocolate substitute that would be agreeable with the Vulcan system," he corrected dryly.

Jim laughed at his friend.

"You mean she was trying to make a chocolate that wouldn't get a Vulcan drunk!" he declared. Possessing both off-the-charts genius, and a mind that early life experiences had pushed into criminal directions, he'd added two and two to care observances of his first officer and come up with a reasonable explanation for Lady Amanda's botany hobby.

The corner of Spock's mouth tipped up a fraction. "Indeed," he said, tossing an intricately carved pair of jade earrings in the pot. "Call."

When the half-Vulcan's hand proved to be the winner and he had swept his loot to the space in front of him. Scotty dealt the next hand, muttering about his lost mini bottle of single malt.

The talk drifted back to ways Spock could please Lt. Uhura when she rejoined the crew — Scotty recommended he try reading romance novels — and Kirk went back to covertly observing the interactions of his senior staff.

Three hours, and countless hands of poker — many of which left the charming young captain in possession of more candy, booze and other inexpensive, but wanted, items than he'd begun the evening possessing — later, Jim noticed that the theobromatl and the earrings had never made it back into the pot.

* * *

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

The girl was young — even by human standards — but in spite of her youth, and her humanity, her performance in the position she had been granted continued to be sufficient from a purely Vulcan assessment. Members of her own species would have judged it impressive.

It was her mate, the old woman did not doubt, who pushed Nyota Uhura to strive to accomplish her work in a manner his people would find acceptable. If he did not overtly make his wishes known, then surely the young savensu was aware of her duty to avoid shaming him and, now that Sarek had seen fit to give her the lineal name, the remainder of the S'chn T'gai family.

Yes, the girl was in many ways an adequate addition to the clan, but she was not Vulcan, and despite, or perhaps because of, the changes wrought in her elder counterpart, it was unlikely that she ever would be.

T'Pau watched her young kinswoman disseminate information that was not yet available through the learning pods. Savensu Uhura was not overly emotive, she did not give unwarranted praise when one of her pupils displayed a tendency towards the innovative thought that humans so valued, she did not attempt to engage them in conversation beyond the course materials and she did not use figurative language to expound upon concepts that humans often had difficulty comprehending. If any in her class did not immediately understand what was relayed during her lecture, she simply explained again, using different, but still reasonable, technical, terms.

Humans would call the girl's methods and accomplishments impressive, though they might call her manner cold. Still, she was not Vulcan, and likely never would be.

T'Pau left her dark corner in the narrow gallery above the lecture hall, her mind full of decisions that must be made quickly.

______________

Ambassador T'Khio'ri would have to be evaluated as a completely separate entity.

Physiologically, she was Vulcan — healers had confirmed this — and she had apparently spent several decades overcoming her human origins. Yet — and this might prove rather more important than Savensu Uhura's biological humanity — although her devotion to the path of Sarek was evident, the elder Spock's mate held onto an understanding of cthia which did not match T'Pau's. The Vulcans of the ambassador's colony did not follow the same path that the Vulcans of their destroyed homeworld had traveled for millennia. This could prove problematic.

T'Pau did not dispute that it was time for all Vulcans to join together once more. She was open even to allowing the V'tosh ka'tur to return from exile — and Ambassador T'Khio'ri's people were far from being V'tosh ka'tur.

But their understanding of logic was not T'Pau's understanding of logic. And they were Vulcan.

Which made them far more dangerous to her plans than a single human woman could ever be.

Decisions would have to be made quickly. She would have to contemplate the multiple possible effects of her choices, and deduce which of those were most likely to occur, and then choose from among them those that were least likely to conflict with her plans.

She had not expected that one woman, existing in two bodies — both human and Vulcan — could be the cause of so much mental unrest, and yet it was so.

Another T'Pau, in another time, another universe, had underestimated Nyota Uhura, as well as S'chn T'gai Spock. This T'Pau did not intend to recreate her counterpart's mistakes.

* * *

**A/N:** Tenth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays. Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	11. Promises

**Now:** **January 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

Uhura bent closer to the newly replicated opalitum sample she had modified according to the calculations Torak and T'Dun had determined would be best suited for their purposes. To the naked eye, it was no different from the samples of the naturally-occurring mineral they had been studying for the past six weeks, but she knew its properties were much more closely in-line with the specifications of the toy Spock had found on Vernos VI.

A familiar tingle of excitement coalesced in her mind. She smiled as she pushed away from the work station. Testing would have to wait until T'Khio'ri and T'Dun were available to confirm her findings. The two stolen hours spent in the lab going over the Vulcans' reports and creating the sample had taken the edge off of her eagerness, but doing any more would be unfair to the rest of her team.

_This is _not _The Uhura Show_, she reminded herself as gathered her belongings and headed for her quarters in the Hall of Welcome.

.

.

The girl had been in her lab again. Her desire to protect her mate was both admirable and understandable, even if the belief that she could accomplish her task before his ship returned from its assignment in the Neutral Zone was illogical. Perhaps, however, she did not actually believe that she _could_ accomplish her goal. Humans were prone to trying the impossible simply to pass the time.

Still, the girl's work might be used to help achieve her own goals. T'Pau crossed the near-empty street to fall in step with the human. _Perhaps one day soon, with the girl's assistance_, she reflected, _these streets will be as full as those of Vulcan once were_.

"Your dedication is commendable, S'chn T'gai Nyota Uhura," she said without looking at her companion.

The girl was silent and the Vulcan spared her a quick glance to assess her emotional state. The latter was not easily done. While most humans were easy to read, expressing their feelings for the whole world to see in that vulgar way of theirs, Spock's mate was almost Vulcan-like in her ability to keep her emotions hidden.

"Starfleet Command would be very interested in learning of your progress," she observed, "if they knew what you were doing."

That _did _cause a reaction. The girl stopped walking.

"What do you want from me?" Uhura asked, turning at last to look at T'Pau. "Are you attempting to blackmail me?"

The girl's face and voice remained impassive, but through the tenuous connection provided by the distant family bond, T'Pau got a faint sense of her agitation. The Vulcan kept her face as placidly blank as the human's.

"Of course not," she replied. "I merely state facts, daughter of M'Umbha. Your work, regardless of your success in reaching your current goal, could be of great importance to all members of the Federation.

"Those who know what it means to be bint Wakufunzi have spoken highly of your abilities since you were a child. You are proving them correct in their assessments."

"I do not believe your words are intended to be understood as an offer of approval of me or of my future as Spock's bondmate," the girl told her.

"No," T'Pau told her, approvingly. The girl was perceptive, and had wisely chosen not to be combative. The potential remained. "I have not yet decided that, S'chn T'gai Nyota Uhura. My approval, however, is unnecessary, is it not?"

Before the girl could decide whether or not to answer the rhetorical question, T'Pau walked away.

.

.

Making it back to her rooms without encountering anyone else she knew was a boon from all the deities, known and unknown. Uhura sank onto her bed in relief.

_My approval, however, is unnecessary__..._ T'Pau had asked her question without really seeking an answer.

The old Vulcan's sanction was neither required, nor especially wanted. Not by Spock and certainly not by Uhura. Convincing Spock that she was prepared to spend her life with him had been a difficult enough task, but it had been all that he needed to promise himself to her.

* * *

**Then: May 2256(a), Starfleet Academy**

Dinner was no different from any other night. She'd made it to his quarters at exactly 1700 hours. Spock was almost finished cooking one of her favorite dishes — a recipe of her grandfather's that they had learned to prepare together after her instructor had learned of her dislike of mess hall meals.

They spoke easily of Academy affairs and her career aspirations as she helped him with the final touches and then set the table. It was almost as if the morning's extraordinary conversation had never occurred.

She waited until they were eating homemade kiwano sorbet — a recipe of her _father's_ — before she told him about the rest of her day.

"So, I spoke with Commander Cromer this morning," she said. "She was pleased with my acceptance."

Spock nodded. "I did not doubt that she would be. In fact, when she stopped by my office this afternoon to tell me that she had 'stolen' you me, her demeanor could only be described as 'gleeful.'"

Uhura grinned at him. "I wonder what she would have thought if she'd known you were getting a much better deal." She ducked her head and spooned up a bit of sorbet, so she missed him freezing mid-scoop.

"Perhaps we should adjourn to the sitting room after we have finished our desserts, Nyota," he said. It was their usual custom to linger at the table over dessert, talking about lesson plans and the week ahead. "We have much to… accomplish before the night is over."

There was more feeling in his voice than she had ever heard before. She nearly choked at the heat lingering there.

.

.

"You are nervous," Spock pronounced. "Why?"

Uhura sat next to him on the small brown sofa in his sitting room, facing resolutely forward. Her rigid back and the heavy press of her hands against her thighs transmitted her discomfort.

By contrast, he practically lounged in his seat, his back to the arm of the sofa, one long leg drawn up, his knee flat against cushion she was sitting on. Her stiff pose juxtaposed against his unVulcan-like posture would have been startling to an outside observer. She knew this, but was unable to un-stick her tongue from the roof of her dry mouth or slow the accelerated beating of her heart.

She'd never been uncomfortable in his quarters before. But then again, he'd never asked her to become his lover before. She wasn't a virgin, but the fumbling she had engaged in with human boys her own age where likely to be very different from making love with a Vulcan _man_.

Even as the thought sent a tiny arc of desire crackling through her loins, nerves had her fingers trying to curl into fists. They only succeeded in digging her blunt nails into her thighs.

He reached over and brushed the backs of his fingers against her cheek. She shuddered at the delicious tendrils of sensation left in their wake.

"Ah," he said, leaning closer, his voice much lower, "you are considerably aroused. Perhaps this is the cause of your discomfort."

Incredulity accomplished what her mental lecture had been unable to do.

Shaken out of her frozen state, she swung her head around to stare at him. "No. This is something different," she declared. "I'm _always_ at least a little bit aroused when I'm around you."

Spock nodded slowly, watching her carefully. "Yes," he agreed, "I have long suspected that you were." Her mouth dropped open, but he continued before she had a chance to protest the arrogance implicit in his statement. "I am often in a similar state while in your presence.

"Oh," was all she could think to say in response. Then, "Are you… aroused right now?"

She told herself it was illogical to blush when discussing sex with her future husband, but that didn't stop her cheeks from heating.

"I am," he admitted, "but there is no need for you to be concerned about that as we will not do anything to alleviate the state before the next nine months and three days have elapsed, Nyota. You are too young to agree to the bonding, and I will not commence a physical relationship with you until I have been assured that you mean to remain with me."

Uhura was shocked. _Nine months and three days?_ That the implied date was her eighteenth birthday did not do anything to alleviate her impatience.

"If I were Vulcan I would have been bonded ten years ago!" she protested, standing up and pacing a few steps before coming to a halt before him once more.

His face remained grave as he gazed up at her. "But you are human, and very young, Nyota."

"If you really believe I'm not ready to commit to you then why did you even start this now?" she demanded. Her body was tight with the effort to hold back her hurt and disappointment. "Why even bother trying to be with me at all?"

Spock grabbed her wrist and pulled her down into his lap. She slowed the fall with her left hand on his right shoulder. He pressed his forehead to hers and smiled. He smiled!

Joy quickly replaced every negative thing she had been feeling.

"I wanted you to give you an opportunity to become accustomed to the idea, beloved," he told her.

She shivered in delight, as much from the timbre of his voice as he called her "beloved" as from hearing the word itself.

"Am I?" she asked, snuggling closer to him. "Your beloved, I mean?"

His lips titled up again.

"Vulcans do not lie," he pronounced with mock seriousness.

Sliding the hand up his shoulder until she clasped the nape of his neck, Uhura angled her head until her cheek was pressed against his, her lips at his ear. She twined her fingers in his silky hair.

"I knew I wanted to be with you within six months of meeting you," she whispered.

Instantly, his right hand was around her waist, grasping her even closer to his Vulcan heat.

"It was the same for me," he said. "On Vulcan we call it shan'hal'lak."

Her heart stopped. Her hand stilled.

"The engulfment?" She had been almost afraid to say the words aloud.

"Yes," he breathed. "But you were — _are_ — too young, Nyota. Under Federation law, you will not be granted all of the rights and privileges of an adult until the eighteenth anniversary of your birth. I will not accept your answer before then."

"K'hat'n'dlawa," she sighed, "that happened nearly two years ago. As you pointed out in your office this morning, seventeen is the age of consent. You would not be breaking Federation law in keeping your promise to me."

He tugged at the wrist he still held, bringing her right hand to his lips. "Ah, you are telling me you are ready for your kiss," he murmured against her palm, "As my mother taught me women are often the keepers of peace in human household, it is in my best interests to comply with your wishes, beloved."

The fire ignited by the touch of his lips on hers promised her that love-making with Spock would be very different indeed from anything she had experienced so far. _Nine months and three days!_

She pulled back, holding his cheeks in her hands.

"You do that very well for someone who intends to make me wait," she told him.

Placing a gentle hand at the back of her head, he pulled in for another brief kiss. "I never said I had no experience with sexual activity," he told her.

Shock, tinged with confusion, hit her for the second time that night.

"I don't understand," she said. "You said you wanted to wait until I was ready to marry you."

He smiled again. A single finger traced the lips that had so recently been beneath his own.

"I did," he said. "My decision, however, was not based on my own lack of experience. Although it has little relevance in the current situation, I feel that I should remind you that 'sexual activity' encompasses far more than 'sexual intercourse.' You are a linguist, beloved, and should not forget such things."

She grimaced a little. Only Spock could take time out from a make-out session to administer a lesson in language usage.

"However, as that _is_ _not_ truly relevant to meaning of your question," he continued, "you should also know that while I am not a virgin, I _will _wait until you can offer me a full commitment before I will engage intercourse with you."

Skepticism, she was certain, was plain on the face that he held only millimeters from his own.

"I'm not a virgin either, Spock," she told him seriously.

"I did not think you were," he returned. "I do not need for you to share the details, but I am aware that sexual experimentation is considered normal for human adolescents. I was raised Vulcan, but do not forget that I am also half human and that I was an adolescent when I entered the Academy."

"So you didn't ask every woman you ever had sex with to marry you?"

His lips twitched.

"No," he told her. "You, however, are not 'every woman' and I intend to neither be an experiment nor to make you one."

The air rushed out of her chest as she sank against his chest.

"So, nine months and three days, huh?"

"Time does pass, Nyota," he said, indulging his human half and stating the obvious.

* * *

**A/N:** Eleventh chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Updates on Tuesdays and Fridays. Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

If you're still reading, and I know that _some_ of you are, please review. I've been told that _Once_ was hard to understand and hope the same isn't true of _Entanglement_.

Disclaimer: I don't own them!


	12. Developments

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

Her visitor quickly scanned the small room before taking the proffered seat across the desk. She could not determine anything about the other woman's state of mind from her facial expressions or body language. This ambassador had mastered the science of Vulcan discipline. When needed, T'Pau suspected, she would exhort more self-control than her half-Vulcan mate was able to manage.

"You and your mate share what you will of your time and keep the rest from us," T'Pau accused, getting straight to the point as was the wont of her people. "Do you seek to lead us in a direction of your choosing, as if we were nothing but your marionettes and you the puppeteer holding the strings?"

The only evidence of T'Khio'ri's surprise at the her hostess's use of metaphor was a slow blink.

"Neither Spock nor I wish to direct the unfolding of your future, Elder T'Pau," she stated. "He could not save Vulcan, but did what he could to help ensure the rest of the Federation would not suffer the fate that befell your planet.

"I understand and respect his decision, but I have not done as he did. I have not made the same choices he was forced to make because I have not faced trials as grave as the one he faced. I have only shared my personal experiences with those who might benefit from the knowledge of what happened to me."

"Do you believe that by limiting yourself to telling only young Nyota Uhura what you have seen, you are somehow protecting the rest of us?" T'Pau asked, leaning forward slightly.

"I believe that I am honoring a promise I made, Elder. It is not my place to influence your world," was the simple, honest answer. "This, however, I will share with _you_: If you continue on the course you appear to be on, you will fail. I do not know what the cost of your failure will be — your time is too different from my own for events to unfold now as they did then — but there are still… those who will not let you succeed. In stopping you, they may exact a heavier price than you wish to pay."

"Do you think that you know me and what my intentions are?" the old Vulcan asked. Her eyes scanned the PADD lying on the desktop. "Perhaps you are correct in your assumptions. My choices may be beyond your comprehension, and perhaps that makes you think me evil."

After moving her fingertips over the screen in a swift sequence, she looked up again and stared at her less-than-willing companion. Nearly two minutes passed. The formerly human woman did not break her gaze. T'Pau inclined her head infinitesimally and picked up the PADD she had been viewing.

"I believe you might be an acceptable mate for Spock, but my first duty is to what remains of Vulcan — its people and the way of life we took millennia to build," she continued, tucking the PADD away in a desk drawer without ever looking away. "I will fight against anyone who attempts to endanger that — even against members of my own House.

"I hope you are not under the impression that you should deal with me as you dealt with the one you once knew."

T'Khio'ri smiled, a deliberate reminder of her human origins, T'Pau was certain. The action was unnecessary; the woman's origins were the reason she had been invited.

"On the contrary," she retorted, "I know very little of you, Elder T'Pau. Although only twenty-seven years separate you from the female who bore your name in my time, I expect the events of this timeline have made you into someone entirely different. Even if this is not the case, I never had opportunity to become particularly well acquainted with her. I do not expect to you to remedy the lack."

"You should take more care, El'es T'Khio'ri, once Nyota Uhura… bint Wakufunzi," T'Pau said slowly. "The one you call t'dahsu is very intelligent and already well-regarded among the elite of a particular organization. She is also very young and still searching for the path that will lead her through the remainder of her life. It must certainly be your wish for that 'star to rise' as you humans are wont to say."

"Again, you are mistaken, Elder," T'Khio'ri returned coldly. "You have, in fact, made two incorrect assumptions. Whoever I once was, Nyota Uhura, is her own woman. I wish only for her to reach whatever goals she sets for herself.

"You should also not forget, Elder, that I am no longer particularly human. You see the species of my birth as weak, inferior. I am neither of those things, and have never been. You would do well to remember that."

She did not point out that her t'dahsu was also neither weak, not inferior. The sentiment, T'Pau decided, was implicit.

______________

Spock curled himself around T'Khio'ri soft, naked body. Even two months, one day and seven hours after being reunited, he still reveled at the feel of her against his flesh. He had been willing to take a Vulcan wife to satisfy the needs of his people, but had been unsuccessful in securing one. Now he wondered if his difficulties had been because he already belonged to the woman lying in his arms, rather than the human heritage he had blamed for more than two years.

His lover stretched a little, her body still trembling in post-coital bliss. She hummed quietly, deep in her throat and pushed her bottom across his lok. He shivered at the pleasure she gave him.

"I will have to go to Earth," she told him, breaking the contented silence. "I must speak with the Director. It would be unfair if my history were to damage Nyota's future."

Spock felt both her reluctance and her determination. He knew this choice could not have come easily to his k'diwa. From the first, she had dealt differently with her young t'dahsu than he had with his. Whereas he had been more than willing to nudge his counterpart onto a course he believed would lead the younger Spock to happiness, she maintained that the Nyota Uhura of this universe would only be satisfied with forging her own path. She offered advice, but not direction.

He tightened his embrace, letting his lips brush against her pointed ear.

"When shall we leave?"

T'Khio'ri stiffened slightly before turning in his arms. Her small hands crept up to cup his face as her dark eyes bore into his.

"You must stay here, my love," she told him. "Someone must watch over Nyota, and satisfy the entity while I am gone. I will return before the Enterprise, and in time for the bonding, but I must go alone."

He spoke before any conscious thought formed.

"No."

She arched an eyebrow at him. The gesture spoke of volumes about how his presence had molded her life.

"No?" she echoed.

Knowing he was treading dangerous ground, he went on anyway.

"You will not risk going alone," he elaborated. "I will travel with you to Earth, and we shall both return in time for the bonding ceremony. You have said it yourself on many occasions; Nyota is strong, resourceful. She will not suffer from our absence."

His lover's brows came down and a pair of deep furrows appeared above the bridge of her nose.

"I will go alone," she said firmly. "Nyota is not weak, but even she cannot take on the entity without you or Spock by her side."

"She is his mate!" he countered. "Now that she has accepted her role, surely that is enough."

Seeing that she was about to deny his assertions, and that she would likely be correct in whatever reasoning she employed, he delivered his true argument. "I was without you for too long, ashayam," he whispered, stroking a thumb across her cheek. "It was longer still for you. Do not make us part again."

T'Khio'ri's beloved face softened at his words, and she slid her hands back until they were enmeshed in his grey hair. Her lips found his and he allowed himself to be lost for several exquisite moments before she pulled back.

"We were never truly parted, Spock," she promised. "I will return to you, and once we have bonded in the Vulcan way, you will believe me."

He already knew she spoke the truth, but the link between them, however strong, was nothing like holding her in his arms as he did now. The sentiments he could not adequately convey in words seeped into her through the link, and he felt her reassurance flow back to him.

"We can never be parted, my love," she repeated.

* * *

**Now: ****January 2261(a),**** the Vulcan colony**

"I've got years before I'll even be a blip on the Director's radar," she protested. "Securing my future position isn't worth the risk to you and Spock."

"Nyota, I did not even know when I was until the day I felt your birth. Even then, I had not easy way to get to you. And still, there was no Spock. Knowing you were out there was my only hint that I was when I needed to be. It was my comfort. It helped me believe that I only needed to figure out _where_ I needed to be and how to get there.

"You have more worth to me than you give yourself credit for. But I am not doing this solely for your benefit.

"It is better that Spock remain here with you. We have no way of knowing how the entity might reaction if it knows that there are not at least two of us remaining near T'Pau."

"T'dahsu, forgive me, but your reasoning isn't sound. We don't actually _understand_ what the entity wants of us, or how exactly it perceives 'togetherness.' For all we know it might be enough that both you and I intend to formally bond with our respective Spocks," Uhura said, changing her argument. "Conversely, maybe the only thing keeping it from interfering with the work on the grid is knowing that you and Spock are here, together. We just don't know. Take him with you."

"Nyota, this disagreement will not break what I share with my mate. We have overcome far more daunting obstacles than this. You're correct: we don't know what the entity wants of us. However, although I have shown you everything I experienced with it, I continue to be connected to the being in a way that you and both Spocks are not. I _feel_ that this is the only solution right now. And I am still human enough to trust what I feel."

"The Enterprise returns in just over six weeks. If you could just wait, my… my mate will be with me and you can take yours with you."

"This can't wait, t'dahsu. I do not understand why I believe this to be true, but neither can I convince myself that I am incorrect. I must reveal myself to the Director. I must take the chance on that T'Pau's position within SI is not so secure as she would like to believe, or it won't matter if we are four of four and all together in one room; she will use her influence to accomplish whatever it is the entity wishes to prevent her doing. I know _that_, Nyota. And if I am to return in time for my bonding, I must go now."

T'Khio'ri knew the moment her young counterpart gave in.

* * *

**Now: ****January 2261(a),**** the Enterprise**

Kirk frowned over the board. Something was seriously off. He moved his piece anyway.

"Mate," he said.

Spock didn't even blink.

"So it is, Jim," he said and began resetting the board.

Kirk reached over and grabbed several pieces, holding them out of his first officer's reach.

"That was the third game, Spock," he said. "What gives?"

He didn't realize he'd been holding his breath until Spock rolled his eyes, and he let it out. _Good_, he thought to himself, _at least he's not going to be all Vulcan tonight_.

"Well?" he prompted. "I saw the eye-roll, Spock. I know that means you actually _want_ to talk — even if you think you _shouldn't_. Spill. You can't lose three games in a row and then pretend nothing's wrong."

The half-Vulcan visibly struggled against rolling his eyes again, and the young captain bit back a smile. He wasn't sure if he was amused or just happy to see this evidence of their progressing friendship — in spite of Bones's attempts to keep them each for himself. It really didn't matter, he decided.

"Lt. Uhura — Nyota — is distressed," Spock admitted. "Ambassador T'Khio'ri plans to travel to Earth to complete what she believes is necessary business. The two have formed a close… friendship, and I believe Nyota will feel her absence acutely. I am at a loss as to how I might ease her mind while she and her t'dahsu are parted."

Frowning again, Kirk ran hand through his already tousled blond locks. Bones was the one on woman-duty; his job was supposed to be teaching Spock to have fun. _Damn_!

"Captain," Spock began, "if you are uncomfortable discussing this matter, I am sure Dr. McCoy will have insight to offer. Psychology _was_ a specialty of his prior to his enlistment."

Jim felt a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. The irony of Spock worrying about his feelings was not lost on him.

"No, no. That's not it," he said, letting his grin spread. "It's just… well, this is kind of… it's family stuff, Spock. It's almost like the ambassador has been sort like Uhura's mother all this time, and now she's leaving, and… did you ever attend nursery school?"

"No," Spock said, his tone unchanged, but his eyes gleaming. "But I am familiar with the practice of tearing an underage child from its mother bosom and thrusting into the care of paid supervisors along with others in its peer group."

Jim only just managed not to flip his friend the bird.

"Yeah, well, maybe this is like Uhura's first day at nursery school, you know?" he said, knowing he was pulling the explanation out of his ass. Nyota Uhura had been thriving on independence since he's met her.

"I believe the situation is more complicated than that, Jim," Spock suggested.

It occurred to the captain that his first officer was merely humoring him; that he would go seek the CMO's counsel as soon as they were finished for the night.

"Wanna go see what Bones has to say?" he asked.

Jim found himself biting back another laugh at the look of relief that fleetingly crossed Spock's face.

"I'm not really that good with women—I mean, I'm good in some areas, but their feelings, not so much," he confessed as they made their way out of his quarters.

Spock didn't miss a beat.

"I have had many occasions to observe the truth of you statement, Jim," he said.

Jim paused just outside the door.

"You're not going to go all buck-nutty again, are you?" he wanted to know. "Because, if you are, we can set a course for Vulcan Beta right now."

Spock heaved out a sigh that Kirk would have sworn bore a touch of amusement.

"I believe seeking my best man's advice will be sufficient," the half-Vulcan retorted.

Laughing at the unsubtle dig, Jim slapped him on the back and the two continued down the corridor.

* * *

**A/N:** Twelfth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there will be addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

My sincerest apologies for the late update; I had to completely rewrite this chapter (_four_ times). Hopefully, the _developments_ are a little clearer than they would have been had I posted the original version. Please review and let me know. No update this Friday.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	13. Adjustments

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

His first clue was that she chose the chair over the sofa. Whenever they visited, his nieces always crowded close to him on the sofa. Even this one, for all her outward Vulcanity, seemed to crave the contact she had once known in the bosom of her family.

Tabansi sat across from her and waited for her to speak.

"I am going to Earth," she said as soon as he was settled. "I will meet with the Director and speak with her about my suspicions."

The man who wore the same flesh her uncle once wore nodded. This was no more than he expected.

"How long will you be gone?" he asked. And then, before she had a chance to respond, "Will you and Spock visit the family while you are there? M'Umbha and Benjamin would welcome you."

His second clue came when she blinked.

"Spock will remain here, where he is needed," she told him, her steady voice at odds with her troubled eyes. "I will go alone."

He forced himself not to grimace. She would have been as headstrong in any universe.

"No, not alone, mpwa," he told her, quietly. Firmly. "I will go with you. How do you expect gain an audience with the Director? How do you intend to prove who you are? I assume the being must have changed your genes when it changed your body."

This woman was not so different from his own second star that Tabansi expected her to give in without argument.

"I knew Miran Helso in my own universe," she told her uncle. "I did not join the Enterprise until I was considerably older than Nyota. First, I received additional intelligence training. Helso was my mentor. I know enough about her life prior to the Kelvin's destruction to convince her of my identity."

Minister Wakufunzi folded his arms across his chest and shook his head

"The universe changed considerably for SI after the Kelvin," he argued, his eyes boring into hers. "Miran Helso stopped mentoring bint Wakufunzi after training her first protégé. She was needed for other things. Over the years, she learned not to trust even those who were closest to her; which is why she is now Director."

T'Khio'ri stared back, apparently impassive, but Tabansi knew better than that. Her eyes were still just like his and he read mutiny in their depths. She did not prove him wrong.

"That is not reason enough for you to accompany me, mjomba," she told. "There are many reasons for you to remain here: Have you forgotten there are students who you must teach? Are you not expected to attend meetings with the Council? Surely you must at least write reports for them."

He was not accustomed to seeing a Vulcan show distress, but unlike the younger of his nieces, he had never found the open display of emotion disconcerting. Not even the pointed ears and upswept eyebrows, or even the faint lines of age that were now etched into the corners of her eyes, could change the fact that hers was a face he had known for more than twenty years.

He didn't need his training as a communications officer to know that she had more to say.

"And, there is Nyota," she added. "She should not be left here without family."

Tabansi smiled. "She will not thank you for saying that, Nyota Ndogo," he said reprovingly. "You have said it yourself; she is a strong and capable woman. And she _does_ have family here besides you and me. Surely you have not forgotten the Sarek has adopted her."

He watched an answering smile threaten to break her austere mask of Vulcanity as she realized he was baiting her.

"You do not play fair, either, Uncle 'Bansi," she said wistfully, giving up the fight and smiling.

A rush of understanding — in spite of everything she had lived through and all she had seen in her long life, she was obviously remembering the Tabansi Wakufunzi of her own universe and missing him— had him opening his arms and reaching for her.

Seconds later, she was in his arms, her small body cradled against his much like he had held her younger self over the years.

"This is the best way for us, mpwa," he murmured. "Listen to your old mjomba. I will make arrangements. "

* * *

**Now: January 2261****(a)****, the Enterprise**

Kirk finished reading the dispatch for the third time and leaned back in his chair, unable to restrain his happiness. _This is progress_, he told himself.

They hadn't even completed their three month rotation patrolling the Neutral Zone and already Starfleet Command was sending them on a more serious mission. It seemed the crew of the Enterprise had come a little closer to proving themselves.

He activated his comm and called his assistant into his ready room.

"Yeoman Rand," he said when the petit blonde stepped in, "please have Dr. McCoy and Commander Spock meet me here in fifteen minutes. Then, I'd like you to call a meeting for all department chiefs — except Saunders — for forty-five minutes from now."

"Aye, captain," Rand said with a nod before turning to leave.

"Rand," Kirk called before she reached the door. She turned back and he continued, "I'd appreciate a measure of discretion in the retrieval of the doctor and the commander."

She offered him a tiny grin.

"Of course, Captain," she said. "I didn't think you'd need me to be your personal retriever otherwise."

Moments after she was gone, Kirk continued to shake his head at the pretty woman's saucy mouth. Then he started working on his response to Admiral Pike.

_________________

"So, we should arrive at the colony about a week and a half ahead of the original schedule," Kirk told his two closest friends and most senior staff, "we'll rendezvous with the Clarion, pick out new personnel and head out to the Orcissian Sector six weeks after that.

"What do you think, gentleman? Look's like we passed the test and get to play with the big boys, now."

Bones and Spock exchanged glances.

"Just what kind of 'new personnel' are we talking about, Jim?" the doctor asked suspiciously. "Why are we picking them up at 'Beta?"

Kirk grinned happily.

"That's the best part, Bones," he said. "We get to choose. Anyone who put in for the Enterprise over the past six years and is still willing to come aboard is in the running. But we only have a week to decide if we want to get the names to Command in time for them to get most of them on the Clarion."

Spock raised an eyebrow and looked at Bones again.

Jim groaned at them.

"Guys," he said with forced patience, "can you stop it with the eye thing? Just tell me what's worrying you so we can figure out how to get through this. I know you two tend to forget sometimes, but I'm not an idiot. They gave me the Enterprise for reason, even if they haven't let me do much with her until now, I _am_ qualified to captain her."

The CMO looked suitably repentant, but it wasn't as easy to tell with Spock.

Uhura would have been able to see what he was feeling — Bones probably could, too, but he didn't look like he felt like talking, so Jim was thankful when his first officer spoke up.

"Jim," he said, "Leonard and I are both aware of how the… unusual abilities you employ in your captaincy have benefited the crew and the operation of the this ship.

"Indeed, given your continuing efforts to support and encourage the current crew, your eagerness to obtain alternate personnel is somewhat puzzling."

At that, Jim couldn't resist smiling again.

"Aw, come on!" he exclaimed. "Don't try to pretend you wouldn't like to get rid of Lt. j.g. Saunders. Likes Bones said, he can even bore a Vulcan to tears."

"Lt., j. g. Saunders is a competent communications officer, Jim," the Vulcan protested.

"You mean to say you prefer his presence on the bridge to your girlfriend's?" he asked before Spock could say more. "Because I don't. Weren't you listening? _Anyone_ who asked for the Enterprise in the past six years is eligible. I want Uhura back where she belongs."

Once again, Spock and Bones looked at each other. Jim was getting sick of it.

"All right, enough!"

He jumped up and walked around to the front of his desk. Sitting on its edge, he addressed his two officers at the same time.

"What's with all the silent communication _this _time, gentlemen?" he demanded. "And I don't want to hear that it's personal best-man-to-groom shit because I ain't buying that."

He folded his arms across his chest and alternated glares at one then the other.

"I am not certain that Nyota will be able to return to us simply because you request it, Captain," Spock said at last.

_________________

"You're telling me you think T'Pau is trying to keep you two apart," Kirk stated. A lot of the story made sense — he'd always wondered how the hell Spock had scored Uhura — but the rest wasn't something he wanted to _think_ about, much less consider.

"Given her recent actions, it is not an unreasonable supposition," Spock said.

"I never took you for a conspiracy theorist, Commander." The captain flashed a grin at his two friends. When even Bones failed to join in, he let it die.

"You're serious," he said, trepidation prickling the back of his mind. "Look, why would she have gone through all the trouble of trying to throw you two together practically from birth, only to undo it all now? She doesn't need you to help rebuild Vulcan with the other Spock hanging around. It doesn't make sense."

"Makes sense to me, Jim," Bones answered for the half-Vulcan. "She's a wily old broad. She's got to have her reasons, even if we can't figure them out yet. What do you expect from the only person to ever turn down a seat on the Federation Council?"

The first officer's eyebrow did a slow climb as he glanced at the doctor. Kirk could almost hear the sigh begging to come out.

"While your statement is lacking in logic on several points, Leonard," Spock said, "I cannot find fault with your estimation of my House's matriarch." He turned back to Jim. "He is correct. She is almost certainly 'up to something' as you might say."

Jim took in a few moments to muse over the new information. He didn't doubt that what his two friends had revealed was posisble, but he also knew that his position — not as captain of the Enterprise, but as a captain Command thought they could trust to do real work — was still tenuous.

Spock had once predicted that Kirk would show a tendency towards jumping into a situation without thinking it through properly — going with his gut, so to speak. While he hadn't been far off, Jim knew there was more to his style of command than that. By now, Bones and Spock knew it, too.

The Enterprise couldn't afford for him to make a decision based on erroneous information.

"I'm sorry, Spock," he said. "There's really nothing we can do about that right now."

The science office inclined his head.

"Of course, Captain," he said. "Our position in Starfleet is still too tenuous for us to risk doing anything that might offend the leader of even a _formerly_ high-level Federation member planet, and I would not ask you to do so. I merely wished for you to understand why it may be difficult for Lt. Uhura to return to us."

Kirk swore under his breath. He hated seeing his friend's seemingly easy acceptance of a clearly difficult circumstance — especially when he knew the acceptance hadn't been reached all that easily. If it had been reached at all. He hated hearing Spock address him so formally when only the three of them were present.

"We _will_ get her back," he assured him, not caring if that meant going toe-to-toe with the "wily old broad" herself. "Sooner rather than later, too. Just… not now."

Bones scowled while Spock merely nodded.

Nearly five minutes passed without anyone of speaking until Spock said, "Nyota and I did not know of T'Pau's original plans for us until our last visit to the colony. She chose me because she wanted me, Jim."

Jim smiled again. _Of course the arrogant bastard knew what he had been thinking_. "We'll get her back," he repeated.

Then the three of them lapsed into silence again and waited for the remainder of the senior crew — with the exception of Lt. j.g. Saunders; they could get Scotty to recommend someone for comm officer, Jim figured — to arrive.

New orders send them back towards the colony sooner than expected, but for a shorter stay than anticipated. Jim worries about Spock's reaction to the news as this means they will have to leave before Uhura's time on the planet is complete.

* * *

**Now: January 2261****(a)****, the Vulcan colony**

"Is it different now? The link?" Nyota and T'Khio'ri were alone in the lab. T'Dun had gone to consult with Torak on some of his calculations. Nyota still wasn't sure she approved of the two spending time together, but she was glad to have a moment alone with her t'dahsu.

"Before the change, I was only able to participate in a passive manner. Like you, I was trained to be bint Wakufunzi because of my inherent psi-ability," the Vulcan woman replied. "Also like yours, my training was solely defensive. Although Spock is a particularly strong telepath — either because of, or in spite of, his human heritage — I was able to block him out if I chose. But was forced to wait for him to let me in; I could not initiate a sharing of our minds. Now I can."

While considering her words, Nyota entered the specifications to replicate their latest version of modified opalitum. It was their twenty-eighth attempt.

"I wish I could say I understand why that's so different, but I can't," she admitted, wistfully. "It's one thing to know; understanding is so different."

"I do not think you would like the price of understanding," T'Khio'ri told her. "And I wouldn't want you to pay it, t'dahsu."

Nyota pressed a final button then looked up into her own eyes. She didn't have to say anything to bring her older self over to her workstation.

"Of course," T'Khio'ri said, standing so close Nyota could feel the heat rolling off her, "there are other paths to understanding."

Raising a brow in an unconscious imitation of her mate, the human woman leaned closer. "You'll share that with me?"

"On one condition. You must stay with Spock while I am gone."

Nyota blanched and turned away, then turned back as she remembered that T'Khio'ri tended to miss even less than she did.

"I trust you both, t'dahsu," the Vulcan said, as if she had read her t'dahsu's thoughts. "Even if for some reason you both 'slipped' I would not refuse you my forgiveness. My reasons are twofold: there is no one else I would rather 'keep him warm for me,' and I know that his love for me, as well as your love for your own Spock, would not allow either of you to be a sufficiently adequate replacement for the other while the four of us remain living."

Nyota's laugher, a light happy sound, caused her counterpart smile in return.

"Don't say it," she cautioned, knowing her words would not be heeded.

The younger woman doubled over, laughing all the harder, though they both knew none of what had been said was amusing.

"It's just," she gasped between giggles, "you sounded so much like him just now. Is—is that going to happen to me, or is it a result of the 'change'?"

It was the Vulcan's turn to laugh out loud.

"It is already happening, Nyota," she pointed out. "But perhaps there is still hope for you. Maybe he will learn to speak as you used to."

She placed her fingers on the human's contact points and shared.

* * *

**A/N:** As promised to StarTrekFanWriter, the thirteenth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Chapters 12-15 needed to be completely rewritten, so updates have been slow to come. My apologies.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	14. Bonds

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan Colony**

Uhura felt T'Khio'ri sinking into her consciousness. Neither Spock nor Spock had ever joined minds with her as easily her t'dahsu did now. She wondered if the two half-Vulcan had had a similar experience.

_Perhaps,_ thought the elder woman. _They are much alike, just as we are much alike_.

The tinkle of amusement was so similar to her own, it took a moment for Uhura to realize it came from T'Khio'ri. She was immediately reminded of the laughter they had just shared.

_Just so_, thought her t'dahsu. _We are one, even though we are two_.

Sending back her own amusement at the needlessly cryptic words, Uhura opened herself further to T'Khio'ri.

_I am ready to see_, she thought.

And suddenly, she did.

* * *

**Then: date unspecified 2322(p), planet unnamed**

There was Spock, staring at her with confusion and awe and fear and relief and _love_ so clear in his eyes, she nearly fell to her knees.

His strong arms were around her before she touched the ground and his deep voice was in her ear and it said, "Nyota?"

She would have answered in the affirmative if she had not been aware that she was no longer Nyota Uhura.

Instead, she lifted a hand heavy with exhaustion and healing, spread her fingers over his contact points and reached _in_.

He resisted at first, but not much. She started to pull her hand back, but he stopped her.

"Try, Nyota," he told her. "I will help you."

.

Sliding into his mind was like nothing she had ever experienced. They had melded before, of course; he had used it as a method of saving her mind. But this was something different. Now she was in control and she could follow the orderly lines of his thought processes in a way she knew would not have been possible before.

She saw his struggles to contain Vulcan emotions with human control. She why what he had believed to be his failure to do so had driven him to attempt achieving kolinahr. She saw that he did feel regret at leaving her and the rest of the people he had come to rely on behind, though his words at the time said otherwise.

"_I will not 'miss' you because once I have reached my goal, I will be incapable of such human emotion, Lieutenant. I can only wish _now_ that you will find it sufficient to know that you are presently among those whom I count as friends." _

She showed him her earliest remembered desire — to see the stars, chasing after the dreams and careers of a favorite uncle and aunt, both of them Starfleet officers who had reached beyond the "family business" to find their places in the universe. She showed him her choice to follow that ambition in spite of her parents' fears for her safety.

She saw him choose death in order to save the Enterprise and his friends who crewed her. She saw the deep love he had for James Tiberius Kirk, who had been his brother in all ways save birth and she shared in the sorrow he had experienced when the other man died while saving another Enterprise.

She showed him the tremendous heartache that had nearly turned her away from her chosen path when her mother — who had been so afraid for her daughter to join Starfleet! — had been killed during what would have been considered a challenging mission for anyone other then Ambassador M'Umbha Uhura. She showed him the crushing rage, borne of her immense grief, that she had felt towards the Diplomatic Corps and their inadequate words of condolence.

_The loss of Ambassador Uhura has crippled the Corps in ways we can not yet comprehend… Your mother's dedication to service will not be equaled… _

She saw the love that had already been growing within him as she had burned on the floor of an isolation room in the Enterprise's medical bay.

She started to show him how the admiration and respect she had developed for the ship's first officer during her first months aboard the Enterprise had grown into affection and love during the ensuing years, then realized he'd seen it more than once before as he had helped heal her mind and as he had saved her from the fever.

She saw the moment he thought she had died and felt his anguish, and his regret that he had not acknowledged what he felt for her. She saw the moment he realized he had not lost her and felt his determination to seek her out.

.

"I am still here," she said aloud, smiling weakly.

He lifted her up fully and cradled her against his chest.

"It seems that you are, Admiral," he told her.

"I don't think I can be Admiral Uhura any longer," she said, allowing her hand to fall away from his face.

* * *

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan Colony**

Nyota stepped away as the meld ended and T'Khio'ri was surprised to note that she felt the younger woman's absence so acutely.

"It _is_ different," the human said, her voice full of wondering. "I can't explain how, exactly. It's like it's so much clearer between you and him. As if there is so much more there that I never noticed with Spock. It's like I have myopia, but you've had corrective eye surgery. That's not it, exactly, but… you know what I'm trying to say, don't you?"

The human stepped close again and the Vulcan woman was flooded with a contentment she couldn't explain with words, either.

"I understand," she said.

"Should that even have worked?" Nyota asked, suddenly the explorer and scientist, eager to gain and analyze new information once again. "You understand because you're the one who experienced it and because whatever the entity did to you changed the way your brain works. Nothing has changed for me, and yet I…_ I understand_. Why?"

T'Khio'ri considered the question fully before answering. She had a theory, but it was not particularly logical. And while she didn't believe in fate or "meant to be" or twin connections any more than Nyota Uhura did, she had no other explanation for why the meld had achieved all that they had wished of it.

"I believe it is because we are who we are," she told her. "You are, for the most part, anyway, who I once was. Somehow, that makes a difference."

Nyota was shaking her head, disbelieving, though her t'dahsu could tell it was not her hypothesis that she took issue with.

"But, we're not," she argued. "At least, we shouldn't be. It's different with the Spocks — they were the same person for three years. We've always lived completely separate lives."

T'Khio'ri didn't have an answer that would satisfy the scientist. She hoped she could please the woman.

"I am still human enough for faith, " she said, her voice quiet, but full of conviction. "We may never discover a concrete reason, but I believe the answer is that you are who I once was."

She knew the moment Nyota decided to accept her reasoning. Something opened between them and their physical distance no longer mattered.

"It is odd that I feel even closer to you right now?" her young counterpart asked. "I mean, that I don't feel like I need a meld or to even touch you to understand? It's not like my… my link with Spock — this is stronger and weaker at the same time. Does that make sense _at all_?"

T'Khio'ri felt a slow smile spread across her face. "It is the same for me," she said.

Nyota didn't quite smile back. "Just now, I felt as if I was experiencing everything you ever experienced — Mama dying, _Spock_ choosing to die, Tia Estella and Ana… it was all so real to me. When I melded with Spock, I could see and feel everything he shared, but… it's different with you," she mused, her eyes never leaving her t'dahsu's. "I need to be that way with him."

* * *

**Now: January 2261(a), the Enterprise**

The complexities of space and time — Nyota might call it "magic" in one of her more whimsical moods — allowed for another small window for Spock to speak with his beloved without a significant delay.

"Our assignment has changed again. We shall arrive at the colony planet approximately one week and two point four days ahead of our original schedule," he told her. "I will be with you again soon, beloved."

Although he would rather have continued to bask in the joy she radiated both through the link and her blissful smile, and used what time they had left to discuss pleasanter matters, he knew she would be displeased if he did not tell her right away.

"There is more," he continued, before she could stop smiling long enough to get any words out. "The Enterprise will not be at the colony when your assignment is over, Nyota."

The radiant smile faded into cool impassivity. The rush of joy disappeared from the link to be replaced with absolutely nothing. She was still there, but she no longer projected what she was feeling.

He waited, watching her dark eyes for a sign of her reaction. _She has become so controlled, so _Vulcan, _in her bearing_, he mused. Her face betrayed nothing of what she was feeling, so he sank deeper into their link, and finally was able to experience her

_fear_

_disappointment_

_anger_

_love_.

Nyota always ended with love, Spock realized. Whenever she experienced negative emotions in connection to thoughts of him — even when, like now, those feeling were directed elsewhere on his behalf — she always emphasized for her love as if it alone could provide a balance to everything else.

He continued to wait, knowing that she needed the time to process her emotions.

Although they had not had an opportunity to discuss it, he did not doubt that she had long ago reached the same conclusions about T'Pau's actions as he and Leonard had.

"Think about it, k'diwa," he imagined her telling him, "first you get sent off to the Neutral Zone almost as soon as we get back together; now you're being sent away again before I have a chance to rejoin the crew. Coincidence? I don't think so."

She did not say any of that, of course.

"I don't want to wait," his ashayam said after two point five precious minutes of silence. "We'll do it while you are here. At the same time as Spock and T'Khio'ri."

Spock frowned. His lips didn't merely thin or turn down slightly. He frowned as he considered the possible repercussions of accepting. That he could not predict any consequence in particular worried him. He just knew he did not wish for his mate to become a further target for his matriarch's machinations.

"Beloved," he said, knowing even before he continued that she would not like what he was about to say, "that may not be a wise choice."

* * *

**Now: January 2261(a), the Vulcan Colony**

Uhura managed not to hold herself stiffly as she walked towards the newly completed passenger transport station, Tabansi at her side. She could feel T'Khio'ri's presence at the back of her mind — it was altogether different from her link to Spock or the family bond she shared with her mate's counterpart and father. She had no such telepathic connection to her uncle.

Glancing ahead, she watched Spock and T'Khio'ri walk, side by side, not touching or speaking, but clearly _in touch_ with each other. She'd never before believed human bonds of love to be inadequate. Now, however, she felt the lack a telepathic connection to the man she had always considered to be a second father to her.

"We will only be gone three weeks, mpwa," he said, as if he had interpreted her unspoken feelings. "You will not miss me for long."

"Are you an empath, then, Uncle Tabansi?" she asked with a smile she didn't quite feel.

Most humans were not, as many believed, entirely psi-null. Because members of their family tended to show intensified facility in that area, every Wakufunzi was aware of that. Her relatives, however, rarely spoke of their individual abilities.

Hers consisted little more than a stronger-than-usual aptitude for mental shielding — something she knew from T'Khio'ri's memories was not protection enough against very strong psychic adepts — and an increased capacity in comprehension (and sometimes mimicry) which, in turn, enabled her to learn languages more easily than other humans. Forms of the latter was so common among Wakufunzis as to be not worth either mentioning or hiding.

As she had expected, Tabansi did not answer her question.

"We only intend to see your mama and baba, make your t'dahsu known to Helso and then we shall return," he said instead. "We'll be back just before the Enterprise, and young Spock" he wiggled his eyebrows at that "arrive. And then there will be the bonding. During the short time we are gone, you will be too busy doing my job and yours and T'Khio'ri's to feel my absence."

Uhura grimaced at his mention of the bonding ceremony, but said nothing. She also knew was wrong about the last, but acknowledged to herself that her significantly increased duties wouldn't give her much time for moping. In any case, she'd done more than enough moping last year.

There were very few passengers disembarking from the ship. Vulcans didn't travel far from their new home these days, and not many people of other species were granted leave to visit the surface as the Vulcans continued to build the colony.

She was surprised to see that among the twenty or so people who beamed down into the station, a tall human male, mostly likely of African descent, and wearing Starfleet science blues.

Smiling at her own mental description of the "tall human male," she turned to see that her uncle was striding towards the man, his hand outstretched.

"Hujambo, Jabilo!" he called out with enthusiasm, but considerably more quietly than Uhura thought he would have done at home. He limited his greeting to a brief hand-shake, foregoing the embrace that would have been traditional had they been standing on African soil.

"Sijambo, Tabansi!" the stranger replied with just as much quiet enthusiasm.

He was looking over Tabansi's shoulder and straight at her, she noted. From this distance, she had a clear view of his inordinately handsome features. She found herself smiling slightly.

"I did not expect you for another month or more. And now I am leaving for a short visit with my sister," her uncle was saying. "But come, let me introduce you to my mpwa. I expect you will be spending some time with her and her family until I return."

"I have heard of your niece, of course," the young man said, glancing quickly at Tabansi before returning his gaze to her.

Her uncle led the man over to stand before her and said, "Nyota, please meet Dr. Jabilo M'Benga. I arranged with the Council to have him come to the colony to complete his training as a Vulcan Medical Specialist, but did not expect him to come so soon. News of his posting must have gone astray." He flicked a glance at M'Benga. "Blame those damned buffoons in Communications."

The doctor smiled at Uncle Tabansi's self-deprecating joke, then turned and took Uhura's hands in his. "Nimefurahi kukujua, Nyota Uhura " he said.

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), the Enterprise**

For the second time in less than a half a year, Spock threw Bones for a loop. He didn't know what he was expecting when Spock requested a private meeting in his quarters, but he knew for damned sure this wasn't it.

"Just say yes and have done with it, Spock," he advised, smiling at the younger officer. "Uhura happy. Argument over. Problem solved. Spock happy. You didn't really need me to figure this one out for you."

He realized things weren't over when he caught the Vulcan holding back a sigh.

"The situation is more complicated than that, Leonard," Spock told him. "Two weeks ago, I denied Nyota's wishes, inciting her anger and disappointment. However, as she is still very young, even by human standards, I cannot believe that yielding to her on the matter would be prudent. The final bonding is so difficult to dissolve as to be considered permanent. It would not be—"

"Damn it, you overgrown elf," the doctor interrupted, shoving his fingers through his thick brown hair, "when I said you need to embrace your human side I didn't mean for you to show the worst of it!

"Stop runnin' scared and act like a Vulcan. Use a little of that logic you're so fond of."

"Vulcans marry for the purpose of having children," he countered. "It is _entirely_ logical that we wait until the mission is over."

"That's bullshit!" Bones snapped. "You're just makin' excuses; actin' like a man who's too afraid to give his woman what she wants because he thinks she's about to run out on him.

"You say you and Miz Uhura have this link or whatever — hell, you already call her your mate most of the time. What's illogical 'bout makin' it official?"

Bones resisted the pull from a bottle of Kentucky's finest he kept stashed under the cushions. The stupid boy needed him to be sober for this.

"Look," he began again, his accent fading as he strove for calm, "you and Uhura have something special going on — you've said so yourself. You're already stuck together forever, right? Well, life can be short. You know that better than any of us. Is this really too much to give her when we're all facing death out here every day?"

"What is logical about leaving Nyota alone on the colony where she could be further endangered if T'Pau believes that my _bondmate_ is a further obstacle to whatever she has planned?" Spock countered. "Ensuring that she does not become a target — even if that means disappointing her in the process — is the most logical thing I can do for her."

Instantly, Bones realized he needed to change tack. He didn't believe the Vulcan woman would go so far as to physically harm Uhura, but he... well, hrewasn't Spock. And he didn't know T'Pau.

"Did you tell her that part?" Bones wanted to know.

Spock's silence was the only answer he needed.

"Seems to me that she's _already_ a target. You said that as far as your family is concerned, she's already your bondmate in every way except the ceremony, right?" he continued. "Your daddy is a pretty important guy. And the Council still needs her, too. Don't you think she be that much safer if _everyone_ else knew she was yours?"

Spock was quiet for so long, staring off into a darkened corner, Bones considered digging out his bottle, after all.

At last, his young friend turned to him.

"I will consider all that you have said, Leonard," he promised. His voice was as sterile as ever, but his eyes said something like _Thank you_.

Spock rose to leave and Bones watched him go without saying anything more.

When he was alone again, he decided that maybe he should just go to bed without tasting the best bourbon to be found on the starship, Enterprise.

* * *

**A/N:** The fourteenth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Thanks to StarTrekFanWriter for letting me bounce ideas off of her; biggest thanks for convincing me to re-insert the first two scenes of this chapter. (Make sure you check out her amazing Sarek and Amanda story, _The Native_.)

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	15. Denials

**Now: February 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

From her perch on the small sofa in Spock's sitting room, Uhura gazed through the window at the rising moon. All at once she was cloaked in memories of the many nights she had spent doing just that during her first months on the planet. The man at her side had freely offered his compassion and eventually she'd learned to accept it. But before she had allowed him to help lead her back to her own Spock, there had been moments when they'd both found something more than comfort in the other's arms.

"I was a little worried about staying here," she told him. "Before… before I actually _wanted_ you. I thought that might happen again. But they're both here" she touched her index finger to her head "and so I don't. She's here and he is, too, though I feel her more."

She lay her head on his shoulder again and lazily slung an arm around his middle.

"I am not surprised to learn that your connection to your t'dahsu is strengthening," he said. "The one I share with your Spock has grown stronger, as well."

"But it should have been different for us," she told him. "It should _be_ different for us. You and Spock were the same person for almost three years before Nero split your lives in two. It makes sense that you would be tied together n some way. But I was born _after _the split. She was already here when I came into existence. We never shared a life. It shouldn't be this way and I don't know how I will feel if things go back to the way they should be."

Spock stroked her head again. The curls had grown and his fingers tangled in their softness. Her contentedness, in spite of her concern that it might be transitory, seeped into him.

"What is the nature of 'should be,' Nyota?" he asked rhetorically, drawing her closer to his side. "The fact that we do not understand the nature of your link to T'Khio'ri there is no reason to believe that it 'shouldn't be.' I see no reason why the connection should lessen."

Bunching her hands into fists, Uhura pressed her case, although she wanted to take comfort in his words.

"I am attempting to view our circumstances in a logical manner, Spock," she protested. "Logic would suggest that it's reasonable that you and Spock," she paused briefly to consider the double Spocks in her argument, but continued without acknowledging it, "both being telepathic and having been the same person for a time, might be connected. T'Khio'ri and I lack the experience of having been a single person, and compared to a Vulcan — or even a half-Vulcan — I am psi-null. There's nothing about my link with her that can be quantified or easily examined."

"The link exists and it brings you comfort," he chided gently. "Do not spend so much time fearing what has not happened and which might never happen that you fail to fully appreciate the present, Nyota.

"The situation is largely unknown to all of us. The only data available for our examination comes from the relationships the four of us continue to form amongst ourselves, and therefore none of those relationship can be subject to a logical determination.

"As my mate would tell you, 'Logic is not everything.'"

She laughed softly and nuzzled his shoulder. "No need to quote her outright. As it is, sometimes you two sound so much alike, I can barely keep track of which one of you is doling out the advice."

"Your talent for employing hyperbole matches that which she displayed in her youth."

"And sometimes you're very much Spock," she said, this laughing more fully, as he had intended for her to do.

A companionable silence settled around them just as the moon became perfectly centered in the window.

"Tell me about M'Benga," she asked moments later.

_T'Khio'ri and Spock had joined Uhura and Uncle Tabansi had greeted the doctor._

_Spock had been the first to speak._

_"Jabilo M'Benga saved my life many times," he'd said, holding out his hand. "I am pleased to see that you also intend to specialize in treating Vulcans."_

_The doctor had regarded the half-Vulcan respectfully as he solemnly shook his hand._

_"It is an honor to meet you, Ambassador Spock," he'd said. "I am humbled to learn that he who bore my name earned your praise. I can only hope that one day I will also be able to make such a claim."_

_Uhura had glanced at her t'dahsu, only to find the Vulcan woman was watching the human man with something like affection. She felt a trickle of attraction, quickly replaced with amusement, then, disconcertingly, concern, from her counterpart._

_In that moment, Uhura had realized that the handsome doctor could be dangerous. _

"I know he's the reason she wanted me to stay with you," she continued now. "I thought she was afraid about what the entity might try to do with you parted from her, but it was him. Somehow, she knew he would get here early.

"Why doesn't she want me alone while he's here? What was he like in your time?"

Spock's warm hand stopped its stroking to trail down until his fingers were at her contact points.

"He was a good man," he said. "A good doctor to me and a good friend to her when she needed one. Had she not met me first, he might have become more."

She pressed her face into his fingers, urging him to carry on with what she suspected had only been an instinctive attempt at sharing. This Spock did not wholly suppress his instincts.

"Please," she said evenly. "Show me."

* * *

**Then: January 2267(p), the Enterprise**

Spock was vaguely aware that he was undergoing surgery at the hands of the ship's Vulcan Specialist. While was a not pleased to be the recipient of injuries that had endangered his life, he was aware that the incident on Neural now justified M'Benga's presence on the Enterprise. Leaving off such thoughts, he focused on helping the doctor repair his injuries.

_________________

New tissue formed in places where the flintlocks' projectiles had torn into his body.

Spock knew from his earlier conversation with Kirk that the Villagers had access to technology that should have not have been seen until much further in their future, but he also knew he was fortunate that their benefactors had only provided the people with smoothbore muzzleloaders. Had rifling been incorporated into the fabrication of those primitive guns, the Villagers might succeeded in causing mortal injury.

The surgery was over, realized; there was nothing more M'Benga could do for him. He stopped contemplating what might have been to devote all of his mental processes on healing himself.

_________________

A human female was in the darkened room with him. She was not the one he would have preferred to stand watch over him, but he supposed that Christine Chapel derived a kind of solace from being in his presence. He dismissed her from his mind and urged his flesh to knit itself together.

She slid her hand over his, then lifted it and clasp it between both of here. The door hissed open and she let it fall again.

M'Benga's voice rang out, reassuring her, explaining the healing trance and what he had seen it accomplish. Spock would have liked to expand upon the doctor's short lecture, but his mind was needed for other things.

_________________

She was there. She did not touch him, but her scent reached into him, spurring on his desire to become whole again, so that he could see her. Such thoughts were illogical, and therefore unacceptable.

"He will heal himself, Nyota," he heard the doctor say. Even Spock recognized the admiration in the man's soft tones. "You mustn't worry."

"I'm not worried, Jabilo," she replied. There was laughter in her voice. Feeling amusement under the circumstances was incongruent to her nature, so Spock deduced that she must be nervous. "Well," she continued, "I _am_ worried. But I'm also fully confident that Spock will come back to us."

The doctor's breathing changed at her words, and the Vulcan sense the urge to fight grow within human. It was a desire to protect. To possess.

Spock redoubled his efforts because it was not reasonable to die at this time; not because he wished to lose himself in Nyota Uhura's smile.

_________________

She did not come to him again, but the nurse was at his side once more.

M'Benga made her promise to do whatever Spock wanted when he awakened, but did not explain further. Such secrecy was illogical and likely to be counterproductive, but Spock could not afford to protest. He was nearly healed, but it was too soon to wake from the trance. The doctor, Spock conceded, likely understood human behavior better than he did. He continued to encourage his body to replace the tissue he had lost.

_________________

It was time. He must awaken fully, or all of the benefits of the trance would be lost as his body began to shut down.

She was still absent, so, gasping, he called for the nurse.

"Nurse," he choked out as he fought to shake off the darkness of the trance. "Hit me. The pain will help me to consciousness."

The soft human woman protested, allowing time he could not afford to lose to elapse.

"Blast you, strike me!" he ordered her, urgency making his words uncharacteristically harsh. "If I don't regain consciousness soon, it may be too late."

She hit him. The light tap — nearly a caress, was of no use.

"Harder!"

Even her hardest strikes did nothing to help him back. Uhura, he reflected, would have obeyed immediately, and was fully capable of dealing him blows that would make his eyes sting with the pain of it. When Mr. Scott burst into the room and dragged the nurse away, Spock was almost grateful for the man's intervention.

He was certain of his gratitude when M'Benga rushed in and began slapping his face with enough force to snap his head back and fort

Spock was grateful, and though he did not wish to acknowledge the fact, part of the reason was because he would see _her_ again.

He was Vulcan, and Vulcans did not lie. Now entirely aware and in possession of all of his faculties, he could not deny what he wanted, but he could use meditation to alleviate his illogical attachment to the communications chief, and he would do so.

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

The moon had risen to just above the center of the window when Spock's hand fell away from her contact points. Uhura did not lift her head from his shoulder. The hand that had covered his traced patterns over his tunic while going over what he had shared. She could feel his heart beating beneath her fingertips.

"How could you not realize?" she asked several silent minutes had passed. "I thought Vulcans needed to understand their emotions in order to suppress them."

His fingers slid into the soft curls covering her head again. He twined one lock around his thumb and rested his chin on her crown.

"I am half-Vulcan," he said in explanation. "For nearly the entirety of my life until that point, I had attempted to be as fully Vulcan as possible for one who had only human control. I my endeavors to master Surak's way, I ignored by emotions to the point where I did not always recognize what I was feeling. Even after I decided to embrace all that I am, the effects of my early choice continued to linger."

She couldn't nod her understanding without dislodging them both from their comfortable positions, but she was confident that he knew she understood.

"I won't fall in love with him just because Spock's not here right now," she said, returning to their previous conversation.

The ambassador's chest rumbled gently with not-quite-stifled laughter. "It is fortunate," he said, fingers still tangled in her hair, "that Spock _is_ here, and your resolve will not be put to the test."

The wave of amusement transmitted through his touch diluted her annoyance at the jab, and she was satisfied with delivering a mock punch to his shoulder.

"Even if he saves his life," she pledged, confident that he would understand her meaning, "I will always belong to Spock."

"And he to you," her companion confirmed.

* * *

**A/N:** The fifteenth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	16. Enlightenment

(Bad science below)

**Now: February 2261(a), Earth, Vermont, United States of America**

They sought out the Director first. Tabansi insisted on it.

"We won't need much of her time, mpwa," he reasoned. "We cannot possibly expect to convince her that T'Pau is dangerous in the time we have. The most we can hope for is that she will acknowledge you."

They _didn't_ require very much of the Miran Helso's time, but not for the reasons he had stated.

Upon their arrival at the secluded New England cottage the Director had designated as a secure meeting place, Helso herself ushered them into a dark, sparsely furnished room. One wall was dominated by stone fireplace that would have looked in an average-sized space. Directly across from that, on the side of house that held the front door and small foyer, was a bay window, obscured from the outside by thick hedges and from the inside with nearly opaque linen drapes the color of oatmeal.

They had not even dropped their small bags before the she dismissed the human man.

"Go make tea or coffee, Lt. Commander," she ordered. "And make sure you take a good long time at it." She gave him directions to the kitchen at the back of the cottage, adding, "I am fascinated by this Vulcan woman who recognizes me, and who loves you. I wish to know her in return without your emotions blurring my perception."

Nodding once, Tabansi dropped his duffle and left the room without a last glance at at his niece. As soon as the door closed firmly behind him, Helso gestured to the armchairs flanking the fireplace. T'Khio'ri sat.

"I have never met a Vulcan who is also bint Wakufunzi before," she said, smiling as she took her own seat. "I'm sure your story must be terribly interesting. You must tell me how you came to be."

This Miran Helso was more dignified — the wildly curling caramel-colored hair was tamer, the clothing more subdued — and held herself more aloof than the woman who had trained T'Khio'ri, but the Vulcan saw hints of the wry humor she remembered. A warm wave of affection spread through her and suddenly she realized her shields were down, and had been since the moment she'd first laid eyes on the Betazoid-human hybrid.

"I was born human," she began, and went on to give a condensed version of her history.

Helso, who had been quiet throughout the brief retelling, appeared pensive. She did not meet T'Khio'ri's steady gaze, but she did not seem to be actively avoiding it either.

After a long silence, the other woman announced with conviction, "You are telling the truth." Then she did look up. Her hazel eyes were unreadable. "How did you know me?" she followed up quickly.

"Miran Helso was my mentor on Betazed," the Vulcan explained.

"Ah." Helso nodded as if a particularly intriguing mystery had been solved. "I was only good enough to get _one_ Wakufunzi in _this_ lifetime."

.

.

"I should have anticipated that," Tabansi observed as he aimed their rented vehicle towards the Burlington Transport Terminal. "She uses her empathy so infrequently among friendly associates, I do not always remember what she is. If she had been anyone else, that would have been a dangerous mistake."

T'Khio'ri touched his hand, broadcasting sympathy and her own shame.

"I also forgot, mjomba," she reminded him. "And I am Vulcan."

Laughing at the teasing tone, he took his eyes off the controls long enough to catch her eye. "She will help us," he assured her.

"I know. The Kelvin did not change everything. She is still Miran. Mostly."

"M'Umbha and Benjamin are probably not as you remember them. They are certainly more… relaxed than you described your parents," he pointed, suddenly cautious. "This means we'll be with them by before they take their evening meal. Are you ready to meet them?"

"Are they ready to meet a daughter who is more than a century their senior?" She raised a brow and smiled broadly, and then Tabansi was smiling, too.

They reached Burlington still wrapped in familial affection.

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), the Enterprise**

Spock had long ago disabled the artificial hissing sound effect, so only the tiny shifts in the air currents alerted him to the silent slide of his office door. He glanced up from his work.

"Jim tells me we should arrive at the colony in about seventy to eighty-two hours. Now, guess what day that'll span on Earth." McCoy walked across the small room to stand next to the first officer. The expectant grin on his face announced that he was not simply making 'small talk'.

"That span of time will coincide with Earth Standard February twenty-third, Leonard," Spock observed dryly and returned to compiling the final report of the ship's time patrolling the Neutral Zone borders.

"And?" The doctor's expression threatened annoyance.

"If you are referring to the anniversary of Lt. Uhura's birth," Spock said, "I am aware of the coincidence."

"Co-in— Spock, it's not a 'coincidence' that Jim's pushing us to get there in time for you to spend the day with her," McCoy spat. "Now, do you have anything planned for the girl's birthday, or not?"

"I do not," Spock replied in his usual indifferent tone and continued entering information into his computer.

The human sucked in a deep breath and, from the sound, undoubtedly was attempting to regulate his temper, as well.

"Have you at least contacted her since we last talked?" he asked.

Spock looked an regarded him seriously. "Of course I have," he stated. "She is looking forward to our reunion."

Grimacing, McCoy asked through clenched teeth, "Just her, huh? You couldn't possibly _also_ be looking forward to it, could you?"

"On the contrary," the half-Vulcan said, "I would go so far as to say I am eagerly anticipating the day."

The doctor folded his arms across his chest but refrained from indulging in the sarcasm he so clearly wanted to use. "But you haven't made plans?"

"I have just told you that I have not."

"Don't you think maybe you should?" McCoy ground out.

Raising an eyebrow, Spock cocked his head. "Are you trying to impart advice in your role as future best man, Leonard?"

"What do you think, genius?"

"Birthdays are of little cultural import among Nyota's people," Spock pointed out carefully, as one might explain basic geometry to a young child. "However, seven standard days after a birth there is a Naming Ceremony. Some celebrate the anniversary of this date. Nyota's has additional significance for the two of us.

"If you are trying to tell me I should do something special for her, you may rest assured that I intend to mark the date."

Mollified and apparently satisfied, McCoy nodded approvingly and turned to leave.

The door slid open, but he did not step through. Turning back, he regarded Spock quizzically.

"Have you made a decision yet?"

Immediately, his protégé understood what he was asking.

"Not yet," he admitted.

Shaking his head, McCoy turned and exited the room.

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), Earth, Kenya, United States of Africa **

The Garissa District transport terminal was as busy as T'Khio'ri remembered it. Humans and offworlders alike hurried by wearing long robes in pale colors. She scanned the expansive area, taking in the familiar space as she searched for even more familiar faces. At her side, Tabansi also tried to find his sister and brother-in-law. After several moments had passed, sharp gasp alerted them that they had been found first.

Slowly turning to her left, the Vulcan woman saw them immediately. Her heard began racing in her side.

The tall human woman standing next to the average-sized man tried valiantly to keep her face composed, but her struggle was evident to the Vulcan who watched her. She had only known a much younger version of that face, and for only sixteen years, but its ever curve and plane had long ago been burned into her memory.

"Mama," T'Khio'ri whispered. She had been unprepared for the violent rush of feeling seeing this woman awakened in her. Only her hard-earned control kept her on her feet; it not stop the tears from filling her eyes, or keep her from losing herself in M'Umbha Uhura's embrace.

.

.

Instead of paying attention to his knife as he chopped vegetables, Benjamin watched as his wife and the Vulcan woman who so closely resembled her work together. T'Khio'ri—still their star, he noted—had insisted on helping prepare the late luncheon. Her eyes hadn't stopped tracking M'Umbha's movements since the moment they had met at the terminal. As if she was afraid to let the woman out of her sight. Even while she had been sharing an easy banter with him, reminiscent of that which he shared with his youngest daughter, her gaze had stolen to his wife again and again. He could not imagine the pain she had endured in losing her M'Umbha so young and forced himself not to walk across the kitchen to hug his "daughter."

"She wouldn't mind, you know," Tabansi spoke up from his side.

"Eh?"

"T'Khio'ri wouldn't mind you touching her. She's a very demonstrative Vulcan. I blame it on her Uhura genes." His brother-in-law laughed at his own teasing.

"Does she have any Uhura genes left?" Benjamin continued to stare at the women. "She still looks like Nyota, but completely Vulcan at the same time."

He looked at his wife's brother in time to see a curious expression cross the man's face. It was gone in an instant. "I don't know," Tabansi admitted. "I don't think she does, either. She is still ours. That much, I know. She spoke of Benjamin Uhura frequently and always fondly. And she hung on every word Nyota and I uttered if it was about M'Umbha. She… needs your acceptance because of, rather than in spite of, the changes she been through."

Her need intrigued Benjamin Uhura, renown xenopsychiatrist; it gave Benjamin Uhura, once a father of three, now of four, a fierce desire to protect his newest, oldest, child.

"She is still ours," he confirmed. "I will leave to her mother for now. She has been without her too long."

.

.

"You are her and you are not," T'Khio'ri observed. "She was like this at home, but she was rarely home."

M'Umbha squeezed her hand and remained silent.

"Baba took great care of us, but we all — Upenda, Muta and me, and Baba, too — we all missed her when she was away. She was ready to retire. The Corps begged her to do that last mission. No one but M'Umbha Uhura had a chance at success. And she _was_ successful; but we lost her. Just when she was going to be ours alone."

As devastating as her mother's death had been at the time, she knew she felt it more intensely now. Whether it was because of the change, or if it was because she now sat, holding M'Umbha Uhura's hand, talking about M'Umbha's Uhura's death, didn't matter. The pain was overwhelming and only the touch of the human woman kept her from succumbing to despair.

"I am not her, mtoto, but I am here," her mother who was not her mother soothed. "I'm here, binti. I am here."

T'Khio'ri halfheartedly tried to pull her hand away. She had not realized she'd been projecting. "I'm sorry, Mama." She was many times stronger than her mother; she could have broken the connection with ease. But she didn't truly want to. "I'm sorry, Mama," she repeated.

"Hush!" admonished the human woman. "You may be Vulcan now, but you are still a Wakufunzi and an Uhura, aren't you? We are strong women, Nyota Ndogo. Do you need to be reminded of that?"

When she found herself enfolded in her mother's arms for the first time in more than a century and a half, T'Khio'ri didn't resist. And when that woman lifted their joined hands to her own contact points, the Vulcan sank into M'Umbha's mind and found comfort in the mother's love that had already grown to include her.

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

She was not eating. Spock caught his father's curious glance and offered a slight shake of his head. Before leaving for Earth, Tabansi had recommended substituting the weekly Wakufunzi family meal with one shared in Sarek's home. Nyota had enjoyed the first two dinners, using the time spent preparing food much as she had done with her uncle and t'dahsu. For this final meal, however, she had had little to say during the preparation, and now she was not eating.

Annoyance and frustration were emanating from her in heavy waves. Spock didn't need to touch her or to consciously tap into the family bond to see that. Her struggle was written in her body language for anyone with even a modicum of fluency to read. The fact that she was staring listlessly at her plate, although Sarek had chosen the meal they both knew to be a favorite of hers, was even more telling. He decided not to push for elucidation regarding the origins of her condition; from experience, both with this woman and with his own mate, he knew that she would share with him until she felt capable of communicating the nature of her upset with precision.

Sarek had less experience with her, and spoke before his son could recommend reticence. "What concerns you, ko-fu?"

"I've been thinking," she told them, vaguely.

"That is certainly an appropriate use of your brain function," Spock teased.

The little frown she shot at him nearly made him smile; he could feel through their bond that his attempt at humor had not left her unaffected.

"You and T'Khio'ri didn't want me trying to learn more about the entity because you didn't know what it might do to me," she continued, "and I respected your wishes because I _understand_ why she worried. This new _thing_ between us showed me, in a way I can't put into words, just how dangerous the being could be to me. None of know what it wants — or even if it's capable of wanting rather than just doing, following whatever path it perceives to be correct — so it would be unwise for me to seek it out again.

"These past couple of months, I've devoted all of my free time to the cloaking research and tests. At first, I convinced myself that it made sense. Nonmaterials are important to communications technology, so of course I'm familiar with them in that capacity.

"And every school child on Earth learns the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan. I was one of those who was romantic enough to idolize him. Why _wouldn't_ I believe that I could succeed, untrained though I am? It shouldn't necessarily take a vast leap for me to attempt to utilize them in another field, provided I gain sufficient knowledge of said field in order to either apply known technology in effort to reach my goal, or to develop new technology to meet the needs of the goal. Difficult, perhaps. But not beyond the realm of possibility."

Spock nodded encouragingly. He noticed that even his father appeared intrigued.

"Except, I don't really have the kind of time needed to undertake the project," she went on. "Even with T'Khio'ri and T'Dun and then Torak helping, we really weren't making significant progress. We were learning anything that a dedicated team wouldn't learn faster. I was starting to feel as if I was on a fool's errand.

"Then, I realized that whatever is happening between you and Spock and me and T'Khio'ri — this entanglement we seem to share — was relevant to my research."

He raised both eyebrows at this pronouncement, but refrained from speaking.

"Okay, I get that, on the surface, it doesn't sound connected," Uhura conceded. "Think about this, though: The entity sees us as components of a single unit. So much so that when your Nyota Uhura was damaged beyond what it perceived to be healed, it _remade_ her into El'es T'Khio'ri. Terran scientists began studying quantum biology centuries ago, and yet much of it remains a mystery.

"But what if the explanation for things like telepathy and for how the entity can be 'in all times and none' lie in a combination of quantum biology and quantum physics. What if it's simply a matter of how adept a being is at connecting its qi or katra or soul or whatever into some kind of universal psi-space?" She glanced at Sarek. "It's not something that's even talked about among average Vulcans. And what if that psi-space also existed on a physical plane? Or on several physical planes? It's all there, Spock. Maybe we're all interconnected and entanglement is just a reflect of a higher degree of connection."

"You have not explained how this relates to your experiments with cloaking," he pointed out.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, brightening for a moment. "That's the simplest part of all; obviously, we've been taking the wrong tack. I think we'll ultimately be more successful if we explored a method for making the particles comprising our shields imitate the particles of space surrounding them — but instead the shield particles manifesting a polarization that is orthogonal in comparison to those of the surrounding space, they would polarize on exactly the same vector as their corresponding particles. In that very basic description, the prcess sounds like just another kind of entanglement."

A pleased smile spread across his lined faced. "You've done well, ko-kai," he told her. "We did not consider the possibilities you have presented about the entity, and we didn't expect you to reach that conclusion about cloaking before Spock's return."

Her head snapped in Spock's direction. "Which brings us to my final conclusion," she said, straightening her back. "You've already told us that in this time, Romulans have begun using cloaking technology nearly a decade earlier than they did in your time. You and your Jim Kirk were ordered to enact an elaborate ruse to steal one of their devices soon after the Federation learned of its existence."

Again Spock nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"You weren't in violation of the Prime Directive because the Federation already knew there was a way to cloak ships; they just didn't know _how_ it was done. So, you wouldn't be violating the Directive now if you were to share your knowledge of the devices with Starfleet Command."

"Precisely," Spock said. "I have already sent specifications to Starfleet Command."

Nyota frowned, looking from son to father and back again. "I've been wasting my time, and you three knew it!"

Sarek disagreed. "You were not wasting your time, ko-fu. Did you not learn a great deal more about possible applications and adaptations for nanostructures over the course of your research and experimentation? Did that not lead to your hypotheses regarding the entity? Didn't searching for a way to protect your mate ease your worries for my son while he patrolled the Neutral Zone?"

"I guess so," she conceded reluctantly.

"Then your time was not 'wasted'."

"But you all knew there was no need for me to develop a device of our own," she maintained, stubbornly. "You had no idea I would connect anything I learned with the entity."

Sarek's face remained implacable, but for a moment, Spock looked rueful.

"No," the half-Vulcan granted. "If we had suspected such an outcome, I doubt any of us would have encouraged your endeavors."

"If you are not going to finish you meal," added Sarek, "you will not be allowed any dessert."

Nyota's face contorted comically as she absorbed the fact that both Vulcans were still teasing her. She seemed torn between grinning and scowling fiercely; the family bond confirmed her opposing emotions. Finally, happiness won and she lifted her fork.

"Fine, sa-mekh" she sighed in an accurate imitation of a human teenager, "I'll eat."

When she glanced up from her plate, Spock did not resist winking at her.

* * *

**A/N:** The sixteenth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

This chapter has been split into two because it was getting too long to manage and some of the things in what is now chapter 17 really didn't fit the overall tone seen here. I hope to deliver the rest within a couple of days.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	17. Surprises

**Now: February 2261(a), the Vulcan Colony**

Unaware, at first, of what had awakened her, Uhura snapped upright. Full consciousness was immediate; hyper-consciousness arrived seconds later.

She jumped out of bed and ran from the room without even stopping to grab a robe.

Spock was standing just outside the door to his own bedroom.

"They're almost here!" she whispered excitedly.

The elderly Vulcan's answering grin told her that he, too, had felt T'Khio'ri's presence growing closer.

.

.

Trying to convince Nyota to return to her sleeping chamber had been an exercise in futility and Spock had not invested much time in the endeavor. He was more successful in getting her to wait until the colony's sunrise before alerting her colleagues to Minister Wakufunzi's imminent return.

"They are still several hours away, ko-kai. Tabansi will not be ready to resume teaching his classes today," he had admonished. "You will still need to see to those you have taken over in his absence."

Although she had agreed, she hadn't gone back to bed, although she did return to her chamber to don the loose trousers and tunics she wore for teaching and for lab work.

"I'm too excited to sleep!" was all she'd said in return.

Now, two hours after meeting her in the darkened corridor, he concentrated on serving breakfast. Citing her lack of focus, he'd banished her from the kitchen and prepared plomeek soup and an array of sliced fruits.

"You may pour the tea if you are calm enough to do so without spilling," he teased. The truth was, he was even more excited than she was about his mate's return. He made a mental note to suggest that Nyota begin meditating again. For now, though, he basked in her shared joy.

.

.

Uhura decided to trust Ehringer with her morning class. Securing his promise to keep his jokes to himself, she pushed away a twinge of guilt at subjecting her students to his presence again. Although she couldn't say why, she knew she _needed_ to be present for Tabansi's and T'Khio'ri's beam-down.

.

.

Spock was unsurprised to see Nyota fall in next to him as he made his way to transport terminal. He nodded as she strode up to him, her face once more composed into a semblance of Vulcan decorum.

"If we continue at our current pace, we should arrive thirteen minutes before they reach the surface," he told her. She returned his nod then continued walking. The corners of his lips ticked up as she faced forward.

.

.

She managed not fidget, but he could sense the excitement welling up in her again. Suppressing another near-smile, he spoke of banal things to draw her attention away from the doors leading from the designated transporter pad. Nyota barely paid attention.

Then the doors slid open and Tabansi Wakufunzi's tall form took up the newly made space. Spock glanced down to see her doing an admiral job of hiding her joy. He looked back in time to see his mate follow her uncle, and he needed most of his control to keep his own joy from showing.

When he saw the next two people to step through the doors, he couldn't check a swift look in Nyota's direction.

"Mama… and Baba…" she whispered wonderingly.

.

.

The reunion, though necessarily restrained and understated by human standards, took the whole of the party's attention. None of them noticed a seventh person had joined them until the handsome doctor cleared his throat.

"Lt. Uhura," M'Benga said, a broad smile aimed in her direction, "it is an unexpected pleasure to see you again. Yesterday, you told me that you would be busy with classes all day, but now you're here and in the presence of people who must surely be your family."

Spock didn't like the proprietary note he heard in the younger man's voice, but Nyota responded before the half-Vulcan decided on an appropriate reaction.

"Yes," she said, waving a hand to encompass all five of the people surrounding her. Her smile was small, but it touched each person fondly. "This is my family. You've already met my uncle and my t'dahsu. They have brought my mother and father back with them for a surprise visit."

She made short work of the introductions and stood back while M'Benga bowed gallantly to M'Umbha. "I might have guessed that only a woman as beautiful as you could have produced such a lovely daughter, Ambassador Uhura," he said.

"There are enough ambassadors in this family without me laying claim to the title, Doctor," M'Umbha replied with a soft laugh. "It's simply 'Dr. Uhura,' these days, or, to avoid confusion with my husband, 'Mrs. Uhura' when I am away from the university."

"Of course, Dr. Uhura," he said, straightening. He turned to Benjamin and offered a more perfunctory bow, but an equally welcoming smile. "And Dr. Uhura. You both must be very pleased to be able to visit with your daughter on short notice. These days, most families wait for special occasions before embarking on interplanetary visits."

"That is true," Benjamin quietly agreed, "and although we became accustomed to frequent travel while M'Umbha served in the Diplomatic Corps, now that we each have commitments to our universities and I to my practice, the same is usually true of our family, as well. However, as we are looking forward to a very special occasion, we took the time to travel here."

Spock raised an eyebrow at the long speech delivered by Nyota's normally-reticent father. Both of M'Benga's brows went up, and his smile grew.

"How wonderful for you both," he said. "What is the occasion, if you don't mind me asking."

M'Umbha beamed and answered for her husband. "We're here to attend our daughter's wedding to Spock."

While the doctor quickly sorted out his features to hide his shock, Spock looked over in time see his mate mouth, _Thwarted. Again_.

* * *

**Then: January 2270(p), the Enterprise**

She probably did not realize that her laughter — tonight, reminiscent of tinkling bells — carried to just beyond the door of her quarters. Spock tensed at the sound of it before consciously relaxing his body. He had been prepared to learn that her tardiness was due to something urgent; it seemed as if she was having "fun," instead.

"Jabilo," he heard her say, "really, I've enjoyed our chat, but now I'm _really_ late for my lesson with Mr. Spock and I truly hate to waste his time. He's a very busy person. I have to go."

"Call him and cancel," the doctor cajoled. "I'm sure he'll understand. It's only one lesson. You haven't finished telling about how General Uhura's great grandmother met her husband!"

The lieutenant laughed again, and Spock's jaw clenched. He reached for the chime.

"He most certainly will not understand! Another time, Doctor," she said firmly, before his fingers connected. "Now, I really must call Mr. Spock and apologize. Then I've got to rush over there. Let me see you out."

Spock sounded the chime.

The door slid open to reveal a face ringed first in surprise, then in pleasure, followed immediately by worry.

"Mr. Spock!" Uhura cried. "I'm so sorry. I was just about to call you to apologize for being late. I've got everything ready. Let me just grab my ka'athyra and I'll go back to your room with you."

Hefting his own instrument case for her to see, the first officer dismissed her suggestion. "There is no need for that, Lieutenant," he said. "As you can see, I have brought the lesson to you."

He walked into the room and placed his case on the floor beside one of her two chairs. Turning to look at the man standing by her side, he said pointedly, "I would not have expected you to encourage Lt. Uhura to neglect her commitments, Doctor."

M'Benga offered a grin. "You can't fault a man for seeking the company of a beautiful woman," he replied easily. "But, I see that I'm superfluous to the evening's events, so I'll just get out of your way."

He placed a gentle hand on Uhura's shoulder. "I still want to hear the rest of the story, Nyota."

Spock sat, watching as she waved him out the door.

.

.

"Would you like to tell me what that was all about? " she asked as soon as the door had closed behind the doctor. "It's not like you to turn 'caveman' and stake your claim like that."

"I may not entirely understand the emotion behind it, but even I can see that M'Benga's feelings for you are more than friendly, " Spock noted once she had settled back into her seat across from him. "Please accept my apology, Lieutenant. I have no claim on you and it was not my intention to 'stake it.'"

She smiled and unpacked her ka'athyra, but did not respond.

"I did not mean to impinge on the doctor's pursuit of you," Spock assured her. "He would gladly become more than your colleague and friend."

Picking up her instrument, Uhura began idly strumming the strings. "I know you meant no harm, Mr. Spock," she said with another amused smile. "And _he_ knows that I am not interested."

"And yet you and he share not only a homeworld, but also a native continent, if not country. His cultural background is far more similar to yours than that of any other male aboard the Enterprise. He, among all crewmembers, would make the most logical of mates for you. And yet you consistently choose my company over his. Why?"

Uhura rolled her eyes at him. "You know why," she said as she concentrated on retuning a loose string. "You know that your reasoning is bullshit, too. I could never marry a man I didn't love." She glanced up at him a grinned mischievously. "I know you want to dissect that one; compare the benefits of loving one's mate versus the benefits of sharing a common background."

Spock inclined his head slightly. "Not at all," he said. "In this case, I have already completed the comparison and arrived at several possible theories. However, my data were insufficient to allow for choosing the most valid conclusion."

"Oh?" She finished tightening the string and offered him another wide smile. "And what data were you lacking?"

"I do not know why you love me, Nyota," he explained matter-of-factly. "So, I am unsure if that factor works in favor of you eschewing M'Benga's overtures, or if such behavior is ultimately detrimental to your continued felicity."

Her smile faded. _Curious_, he reflected. Rather than annoying and confusing him, her rapid mood changes were… intriguing.

"Spock, I can handle being in love with you while knowing that you don't return my feelings," she said, all traces of amusement gone from her voice. "I can even accept occasionally sharing your bed and allowing you into mine under those circumstances, so please don't think what I'm about to say is an attempt at emotional manipulation: I do not wish to continue this conversation."

"Why would I see that as an attempt at manipulation, emotional or otherwise?" he wanted to know.

"Because historically, human men have believed that illogical, _human_ women often employed such assertions in the hope that their partners would pursue the topic and determine what was troubling the female."

"I am not human," he pointed out.

"No, but you know something of human behavior," Uhura countered, "and we have already established that I am an illogical woman."

"You are one of the most logical human women I have ever met," was his mild, yet firmly stated, objection.

"Not tonight, I'm not," she told him. "How did you like the tea I brought over last week? It was a new blend. I've got plenty more if you'd like some tonight."

"Why do you not wish to discuss this further?" Spock persisted, ignoring her change of subject. He knew she found his determined insistence upsetting. But part of him wanted to upset her. Part of him needed to see her give in to a kind of emotionalism that he could never allow himself.

.

.

Uhura felt her anger and frustration evaporating the pleasure she'd initially felt upon finding him on the other side of her door. _Why bother keeping quiet_? she wondered. _Why not tell him what he wants to know_?

"Fine," she said, huffing out a irritated breath. "I cannot tell you _why_ I love you. Haven't I already explained that love is not an equation to be solved? I could offer you long lists of the qualities I find appealing in you, and even the sum of all those things wouldn't tell you, or me for that matter, why I love you. I just do. Even when you are being obtuse, annoying and insensitive in your pursuit of knowledge, I love you."

"Insensitive, Nyota?"

"Yes, insensitive, damn it!" she snapped. "Do you think it's always easy? Spending time with you? Sharing my body with you when I know that I'm little more than an experiment to you? That it isn't my mind which tempts you into my bed? Knowing that you'll never _allow_ yourself to be with me fully because you are so ashamed of your disgraceful human heritage that you will always need to be Vulcan to your very core? Do you think it's easy for me to realize that one day you are going to walk away from me without a backwards glance even though you're already halfway to loving me because _admitting_ you love me would be so very _human_ of you?

"I haven't forgotten Omicron Ceti III, Spock. You were happy there because you were free to love. Well, guess what? There are no spores here on which you can blame your behavior!"

As she watched him, chest still heaving from her tirade, he stood, straight-backed, yet still expressionless.

"If that is what you believe, then the wisest option would be for us to desist engaging in the more intimate aspects of our association," he said coolly. "If current circumstances cause you such emotional disturbance, and you have no outlet for said distress, it is only reasonable to assume that eventually the situation will prove detrimental to both our professional relationship and to our personal acquaintance. I have no wish to lose your friendship.

"You see, your assessment of my actions is not wholly accurate, Lieutenant; your mind is a great part of why _I_ seek out your company."

His words knocked some of the fight out of her and Uhura felt herself sagging. _Just when I think I've got him all figured out…_

"That's not what I was trying to say," she said, sinking back into her seat. "I have my own ways of dealing with the 'situation' as you call it. Dissecting my feelings for you is not one of those ways." Leaning back, she inhaled deeply and willed herself to speak with a calm she didn't feel. Even as she spoke again, she knew she didn't believe what she was saying. "This won't last forever, Spock. One day, I'll stop loving you and move on. I don't really expect or even hope for you to fall in love with me. I do expect you to respect my wishes in this matter."

"Given your prognosis for the future, continuing on such a course might be considered unwise — even by human standards," he said, his dark eyes never leaving hers. "I would not have expected you to wish to continue sharing physical intimacy with me."

Just like that, the anger was back to full-force.

.

.

"Then why are you making suggestions instead of decisions?" she exploded, exasperation banishing her nearly-calm demeanor. "Why the hell are you still here?"

"Your affection for me is appealing," he admitted. The struggle to keep his voice even served to remind him of exactly why he should leave. "It increases my pleasure significantly. Additionally, I find great satisfaction in bringing you to climax."

"So, let see if I've got this straight — and I'm going to be vulgar here — you're saying that you liking screwing me and making me cum. And as a special bonus, you get off on knowing I love you. Some part of you enjoys knowing that I feel, even if you can't."

Although he gave no outward sign of it, her words twisted something inside him. Using such crude expressions to describe what they shared was at odds with the emotion he knew she harbored for him. He did not understand why her apparent disregard for her own feelings should matter to him; it was something he would have to contemplate at a later time.

"I would not have used the terms you so accurately described as 'vulgar', but, yes those are some of the reasons I have not ended that aspect of our association before," he answered calmly. "Your company is also pleasing, and even when we do not engage in intercourse, sexual activity with you affords me a balance I find more difficult to attain through meditation alone."

"Oh!" She threw her hands up in the air and turned away from him. "Well, it's okay, then, because 'sexual activity with me' is better than meditation — helps you hold onto your precious logic without any pesky emotions getting in the way."

Realizing she did not require an answer, Spock watched silently as the expression on her beautiful face twisted and changed.

.

.

Once more, she steadied her breathing, this time searching for true peace. Several silent minutes passed before she found it and spoke again.

"Are you parents in love?"

Spock sat again, back still erect, his hands lightly touching his knees. "I do not doubt that my mother loves my father," he said.

Uhura nodded, her eyes falling away from his for a breath. "Do you think loving him makes her unwise?" she asked, glancing up again.

"I have seen little evidence that it troubles her," he replied. "However, I am not certain her life with him has been entirely happy."

Smiling for the first time since he had continued to question her, Uhura waved her hand at that. "No one leads an entirely happy life. Do you think she regrets choosing your father."

He went so long without answering, she began to wonder if was going to ignore the question.

.

.

Spock carefully considered the query. It was something he had thought about many times in his youth. Regret, he firmly believed, was illogical. But Amanda Grayson was human, and therefore she was by nature, illogical. And yet… although he knew his mother had had occasion to regret several decisions concerning her son…

"No," he eventually told the lieutenant.

Her eyes were gleaming, her full lips still curving up. If she remained angry with him, he saw evidence of it in her expression.

"I don't think I'm up for a lesson tonight," she told him, laying the ka'athyra aside and standing. Her single step forward told him she was not asking him to leave. "You should understand something about; I don't regret loving you, or taking what you are able to give me."

Rising from his seat, he took three steps to stand directly before her. The scent of her arousal spurred his own desire, and the debate over whether the principals of logic would allow him to take what she was offering ceased before he could fully examine it.

"Will you stay, anyway?" she whispered.

He should answer in the negative, he knew, but he also knew he didn't wish to do so. All of his reasons for stopping intimate relations with Nyota Uhura still existed, but so did his reasons for continuing. Arguing the points further would be unreasonable.

As had become his wont when she asked these questions he knew he could not answer in words she would find pleasing, he responded by covering her cool, soft lips with his own.

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), the Enterprise**

Having ordered a relaxation of bridge protocol for the last leg of their journey, Jim Kirk sat in the command chair as if it had been made to fit his body. He'd spent months at the Academy perfecting the lounge. Even before graduation, he could make it look like he owned whatever seat was under his ass. Still, although anticipation on the bridge had grown palpable, his crew was mostly silent.

"ETA, Mr. Chekov?" he called out. The question wasn't really necessary; Jim knew they were less than two hours away from the colony. But someone needed to turn the occasional excited murmur into real conversation.

"One hour twenty-sewen meenots, Keptin!" the curly-haired navigator replied. He swiveled his chair around to grin at Jim. "The Wulcan colony planet is detectable wia short-range sensors. Vould you like to see a wisual?"

Kirk swung around to watch his first officer standing at the science station, directly adjacent to the communications console. _Gods!_ _I hope Uhura's uncle is still willing to take Saunders_, he thought. "How about it, Spock?" he asked aloud. 'Want to get an early look-see?"

Spock unbent himself from his viewer and turned to face the captain. "No, thank you, sir," he replied. "I am already familiar with the sight of the colony planet."

"He's already familiar with the sight of Miz Uhura, but I bet he wouldn't balk at an early look-see at _her_," Bones muttered in Jim's ear.

"Indeed, Doctor," came dry response from the half Vulcan, "if Mr. Chekov can provide us with a visual of my future wife, I will not certainly not refuse."

Bones raised a brow at "future wife," but beamed in approval, and everyone turned to see how the Chekov would respond to this unprecedented bout of teasing from the Vulcan.

_At least, I _think_ he was teasing_, Jim mused as he swung back around.

However, over at the tactical station, the young ensign's sunny expression darkened just a tad. "I am sorry, Mr. Spock," he said, "dat vould take a miracle. Ve vill all have to vait to see Miss Uhura. Trust me, I understand how difficult vaiting vill be. It is only to be expected; Russian vomen often have dat effect on many men."

* * *

**A/N:** The seventeenth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .


	18. Persistence

**Now: February 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

Preparations for T'Khio'ri's and the elder Spock's bonding ceremony began the night of their arrival on the colony. Benjamin and M'Umbha had been comfortably installed in Sarek's home, and she was eager play mother-of-the-bride.

"I'll be sure to take copious notes," she informed the family over the evening meal. "That way, when we do this all over again in three years, I'll be ahead of the game."

Everyone but their host agreed that her plan was wise.

"Spock and Nyota should also bond while you remain on the colony," Sarek observed once the dinner plates had been removed and the family had retired to the larger sitting room. "While I understand his fears for her safety, logic suggests that our matriarch would be less likely to act against her once their association is officially sanctioned. Furthermore, it would be illogical to expect you to return three Earth years from now to attend a second ceremony. I foresee no difficulty in convincing him if the argument is presented logically."

M'Umbha smiled, managing to look doubtful at the same time.

"Even if we base our strategy on logic, we still have a difficult task ahead of us," she retorted. "I'm sure he can come up with thirty-seven reasons why it's more logical to wait." She looked around the room. "You _all_ know pigheaded he can be. It was cute when he was a little boy; in a grown man it's frustrating." As Uhura felt her stomach twist at the reminder that her mother had first met her betrothed when he was a child, M'Umbha turned and feigned a baleful glare in his counterpart's direction.

The corner's of the elderly ambassador's lips tipped down as he responded, "Yes, I find that I am intimately acquainted with Commander Spock's capacity for obduracy."

"Surely, the seven of us possess a collective intelligence capable of constructing an argument compelling enough to make even him see reason," T'Khio'ri insisted. She reached over and covered his hand with her own. "Let us hope it doesn't take him five decades to come to his senses."

The older humans chuckled softly at the joke while the two near-Vulcans smiled widely and even Sarek's amusement became evident through the family bond. As much as she wanted to join in the general teasing, a sense of trepidation kept Uhura from showing even the tiniest of smiles.

"Everyone… Look," she began, already dreading the need to spoil the pleasant mood, "I know you all mean well, but please don't try to pressure Spock. He had enough trouble getting past learning that T'Pau wanted us together. For a while, I wasn't even sure knowing that Amanda wanted it, too, helped matters. So just… don't push him. Please?"

M'Umbha and T'Khio'ri shared scheming smiles, while Benjamin and Tabansi exchanged concerned glances.

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), the Enterprise**

Twenty minutes after his first officer had declined his offer, Kirk silently concluded that Spock had made the right choice. Watching the colony planet grow ever larger on the viewscreen would have been an interminable hell. As things stood, the bridge crew were carrying on several conversations, covering topics as varied as what they each planned to do during the ship's downtime (everyone looked forward to getting off the ship — even if that meant getting on to the Vulcan colony) to a prolonged debate between Saunders and Chekov over what it meant to be Russian.

Kirk took part in each conversation, throwing out a comment here or a question there, consciously, but subtly, reinforcing his bonds with his crewmembers. That, at least, was one of his easier tasks as captain.

Saunders's raised voice caught his attention. _That's a first_, he thought and glanced over to where Pavel leaned back against the railing, arms folded over his chest. Jim could imagine the mutinous glare on the young man's face.

"That does not make her _Russian_, Ensign," the interim communications chief insisted. "At best, she might consider herself to be Ukrainian. That's doubtful, however; and, I believe we have already established that the two are not the same."

Saunders was obviously trying to score brownie points with the half-Vulcan, reflected Kirk with a grin. He decided not to tell the infamously boring lieutenant that his reassignment to the colony's communications project was already secure. Watching the stultifying officer's attempts to impress Spock was too amusing to give up just yet.

He kept an ear out anyway — just in case the disagreement turned nasty. If he had to, and if Spock didn't beat him to it, he'd put an end to the nonsensical argument.

Although the crew could use a little row to break up the monotony which always seemed to increase a thousand-fold as they approached a destination, it was best that the instigator wasn't Lt. j. g. Saunders. The crew were too close to finally being rid of the joy-sucker to risk anyone killing the guy at this point.

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), the Vulcan colony/the Enterprise**

For the second time in as many days, Uhura stood facing doors leading to a transporter room, waiting for a loved one to arrive. Part of her cursed the slick machinations of one James Tiberius Kirk. She was pretty certain he had been the one to convince Ambassador Spock to convince his father that this beam-down shouldn't count as an official visit — that would take place tomorrow — and that Nyota should be allowed to greet her captain, the ship's surgeon… and her betrothed without any official Vulcan representation. The plan was too unVulcan to have come from Sarek. She wondered how Spock had managed to secure his agreement.

"I could actually use your company, Sa-mekh," she murmured under her breath. "It would keep me from falling to pieces."

"We've got to stop meeting like this, Lieutenant."

Uhura turned at the sound of the smooth, amused masculine voice.

"Back so soon, Doctor?" she asked, forcing a small smile. "If I didn't know better, I might think you were following me."

M'Benga stepped closer to her, his full lips stretched into sultry smile. "What makes you think I'm not?" he teased.

.

.

Spock stared straight ahead, hands behind his back, the mask of implacability revealing nothing of the eager anticipation currently threatening to show itself. Leonard McCoy stood to his left, tugging at the neck of his dress uniform and muttering in low tones about death and cloning and rebirth.

"Die every time we climb up here," the doctor sniped in a hoarse whisper. "And what comes out the other side ain't the same as what started."

As he had heard his friend's theory on transporter technology more times than he cared to count, the half-Vulcan chose to not to point out that the hypothesis, while entirely reasonable in the purest terms, lacked very much practical importance. An elbow jabbing his right side drew his thoughts away from the break-up of molecules.

"Yes, Captain," he said dryly. Without turning, he knew that Jim was grinning at him widely.

"Bet you can't wait!" Spock could almost hear Kirk's eyebrows wiggling suggestively. "Hopefully, you'll be in a better move after we're finished here. It's been way too long."

"I have already admitted my desire to be reunited with Lt. Uhura, Jim," Spock said out of the side of his mouth. "Your continued attempts at disturbing my calm only serves to delay that reunion." He nodded towards the transporter technician who quietly awaited the captain's order to energize.

Jim slapped his first officer on the back and shook his head. "Get your mind out of your girlfriend's panties for a second, Mr. Spock; I _meant_ that you probably can't wait to be rid of Saunders. He's been sitting in Uhura's seat for way too long."

Just from the sound of the younger man's voice, Spock could tell Kirk was still grinning when he called out "Energize" to the technician who had failed to restrain his own laughter.

.

.

"You seem to have a quite a bit of free time. I'm surprised your studies don't leave you too busy to visit the transport station so often." Uhura folded her arms across her chest. M'Benga's teasing, coupled with her knowledge of his counterpart's pursuit of T'Khio'ri, made her wary, but she was determined not to show it.

"As you know, I arrived nearly a month before I was due to arrive," he replied, still smiling. "A… change in circumstances meant that I had got here before the Academy was ready for me. I also left behind some equipment that I'll need for my courses. Replacements aren't available on the colony, so I arranged for them to come with whichever Starfleet ship can deliver them."

"What circumstance?"

"Pardon?"

Narrowing her eyes, she peered at him closely. "What changed circumstance forced you to come here a month early if neither you nor your instructors were prepared for your studies to commence?"

M'Benga cocked his head to the side. "Would you refuse an invitation from Councilor T'Pau?"

Uhura suppressed a shudder at the revelation. It was one thing to suspect the old bat, but… _You don't that she's got plans for him_, a voice in her head pointed out. _Get a grip. But just in case you're right, change the subject before you say something you shouldn't._

"So, you expected your equipment to be on the Clarion?"

"I hoped it would be." He stepped closer to her. "Now I'm crossing my fingers that it will arrive with the next 'Fleet ship."

"Did you receive word from Starfleet Medical that they'd somehow managed to rendezvous with the Enterprise—even though they're coming from the direction _opposite_ to Earth — and load your equipment there?" Life with Spock made persistence a necessity; she had it in spades. Unfortunately, she'd already recognized a similar capacity in the handsome doctor.

"Don't you believe in the power of hope, Nyota?" His deep voice was full of the very emotion and, this time, she couldn't keep herself from smiling.

"Hope is illogical, Doctor."

Her lips still curved up, she turned to face the transporter room doors just in time to see them slide open.

* * *

**A/N:** The eighteenth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Yeah, yeah yeah. I split Chapter 18 into thirds -- I wanted to post something wholly lighthearted for a change. So the larger part of the material I promised you in 17 won't be completely post until 20 or 21.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	19. Confirmation

**Now: February 2261(a), the Vulcan colony**

They walked straight up to each other — like they were only two people in the room — stopping about only half a meter apart. Neither said a word.

Someone who didn't know either one of them might have missed it; Bones saw it all. The slight softening of the muscles around Spock's eyes. The barely discernible twitch to Uhura's lips. Signs of joy, he realized. If he hadn't been sure of it before, any doubts were washed away in those few seconds of silent exchange. He was looking at love.

More gently than he preferred to do, he jabbed an elbow in his captain's side. The goof was making goo-goo eyes at the oblivious couple. Any second and he'd be cooing. Jim swung his head in the doctor's direction, a frown already creasing his face. Bones gave him the look. Luckily, the grinning fool caught on right away.

"Erhem." Kirk was smiling again as he cleared his throat. Both Uhura and Spock snapped to attention and turned to him.

"Captain." Uhura gave a respectful nod. "Commander. Doctor. Welcome to T'Khasi Vokaya."

Kirk's eyes widened along with his smile. "So it's official, then? 'Dream of Vulcan'?"

"'Memory of Vulcan,'" she corrected, smiling back. "As of this morning. I'm surprised you weren't notified when you reached T'Khasian space."

Shrugging, the captain waved off the apparent oversight. "Well, since we're not officially here until tomorrow…"

"Yeah. That must be it." The smile grew as her eyes drifted back to Spock, Bones noted with approval. He looked over her shoulder at the man quietly, and rather indulgently, smiling at her back. A quick glance at the Vulcan told him her fiancé was, thankfully, too busy devouring her with his own eyes to notice. When he looked back at Uhura's shadow, the shock of recognition made him jump.

"Jabilo? What the hell are you doing here already?"

He hid a smile as his exclamation knocked Uhura and Spock out of their love-struck stupor. With a sheepish grimace, she held out a hand towards Kirk as she turned towards M'Benga.

"Sorry! Dr. M'Benga, this is Captain James T. Kirk of the Enterprise." The two men shook hands. "I guess you already know Dr. McCoy." She gave Bones a grin and an eyebrow wiggle before indicating Spock. "And this is Commander Spock, the Enterprise's first officer and chief science officer."

Jabilo raised his hand in a flawless rendition of that Vulcan hand thing just as Spock stepped forward and offered his own to shake. "And Lieutenant Uhura's sa-kugalsu," the half-Vulcan added without voicing a _trace_ of the challenge Bones knew what there. M'Benga knew it was there, too.

Bones felt a rush of pride at his charge's manly display. _Look's like there's something besides a whole lotta headaches to this best man stuff, after all_.

Behind the African doctor's back, Uhura glared at McCoy's smug grin.

.

.

They stood facing each other, just inside her small room. Uhura stared into her lover's eyes, unable to find speech now that they were finally alone.

It felt as if hours had gone by between the beam-down and the short time it had taken to escort Kirk and McCoy to a private meeting with Sarek, Uncle Tabansi and the captain of the Clarion. Through all the introductions and greetings (almost immediately followed by the captain's somewhat suggestive dismissal — "Get reacquainted with your fiancée, Commander" — and the ambassador's concurrent orders), she hadn't been able to think of much other than this moment. But now it was here and she felt too overwhelmed with joy and fear and anticipation and trepidation to offer anything but silence.

Spock had no such qualms. He moved forward decisively. This was not a time for hesitance.

"Beloved," he whispered, fingers stroking gently across her face. "I have missed you."

At his touch, the words came in a rush. "Gods," she gasped, not closing her eyes because she couldn't bear not to see him. "Gods, Spock. I've missed you so much."

She was in his arms then, her forehead resting against his, their love twining and merging through the link, banishing doubts and uncertainties.

Saying more was unnecessary, but she spoke anyway. "K'diwa," she murmured against his lips, "I love you. You know that right? I'm yours. I—" And there really_ was _no more to say because he was kissing her back and she could feel his understanding.

.

.

After several hours truly _had_ passed, they lay tangled together on her small bed, employing their link and lovers' shorthand to make up for the time they'd spent apart.

"Happy birthday, beloved," he whispered in the dark.

"That was a mighty fine gift, Commander," she murmured against his shoulder. The events of the past eleven months flashed through her mind and she grew more serious. "I don't want to wait that long for you, k'diwa. Ever again."

He didn't want her reliving old hurts while nestled in his arms. Her happiness was necessary to his own. "Four years ago, you waited nearly as long." Feeling her smile against his skin and her joy through the link, he decided to continue teasing her. "At the time, you said that I had been worth the wait."

Her whole body shook with quiet laughter and he scooped her on top of him so that he could bask more fully in her good mood.

"_Exactly_ four years ago," she began once her chuckles started fading, "I was still waiting. Between you and my lok-blocking mother, I was a little scared I might have to wait forever."

"'Patience is a virtue,'" he quoted. "That was a popular Terran saying, was it not?"

* * *

**Then: February 2257(a), the Academy**

Nyota's patience had been hard-won.

Temptation had nagged her nearly every minute she spent in his quarters since that first mind-blowing kiss. On a daily basis she given mental thanks for his foresight in dismissing her as his aide.

"Vulcan control also has its limits," he'd confessed the one time she'd expressed her gratitude aloud. As she had been sitting on his lap during the protracted kiss that followed his admission, there was no reason to doubt the veracity of his statement.

Eventually, she'd come to enjoy the freedom from awkward moments of wondering what form of physical affection he expected. It was a welcome change from the fumbling teen-aged boys she'd dated before and from the equally inexperienced young man who had helped her divest herself of her virginity. With Spock, she had been able to relax, knowing that he would not ask for more than she was ready to give.

Still, just as he'd promised, the time had passed, and after the first six months of couplehood were behind them, her curiosity — _What would it be like? Will I enjoy it? Will _he_ enjoy it?_ — had come back with a vengeance. As one had day faded into the next, each bringing them closer to her eighteenth birthday, she'd found it increasingly difficult to dampen her growing desire.

Then, a week before the big day, her mother comm'ed.

"I'll be in California next week, binti." M'Umbha Uhura's cheerful face beamed at her through the viewscreen in her dorm room. "Let me treat and your friends to dinner. We'll celebrate your official step into womanhood!"

For a moment, Nyota feared her plans had been discovered, and she sputtered a bit before asking, "What? Why?" Even before the frown was fully formed on the older woman's face, her daughter started backpedaling. "I mean, that's great news, but why are you coming to America? Everything's okay at home, right?"

"Everything is fine!" M'Umbha shook her head, smiling again. "I'm presenting at a conference and have more free time than I anticipated."

"What conference? I haven't heard of anything coming up. And why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Her mother's eyes narrowed as her lips thinned again. "I'm sorry, Nyota. I thought that I was the mother in this relationship."

"Sorry, Mama." She punctuated her apology with downcast eyes.

"I forgive you, binti." M'Umbha was all smiles again when Nyota looked up. "I didn't mention it sooner because I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it up to see you. But a speaker I wanted to see had to drop out, so I have no plans for the night of your birthday."

"Which conference is this? I can't remember hearing about one taking place this month."

"That's because it's very small," her mother explained. "The Stanford University Endangered Languages Symposium doesn't attract a lot of big names — or very much interest these days. Since everyone speaks Standard these days… But there's always been at least one Wakufunzi on the program and this year it's my turn. I don't expect there will be much new information revealed. Nothing that you wouldn't have heard from your cousins already, in any case."

"Oh. Well, I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.

"It's always nice to catch up with old friends, even if we don't officially have anything new to discuss — other than the death of yet another language." M'Umbha's face fell at the mention of the very thing her family had spent so many generations trying to prevent. Then, just as suddenly, she brightened again. "Speaking of old friends, I'd like you to invite Spock to join us."

Shock made Nyota forget her earlier contrition. "What? Why?" she sputtered again.

This time, her mother responded with laughter rather than reproof.

"Because mothers like to snoop but it's rather difficult for Amanda Grayson to check up on her son all the way from Vulcan. When I told her I'd be at the conference, she asked me to do it for her. But I'm pretty sure he'll remember me and figure out what I'm up to if I just show up on his doorstep. This way, I have a genuine excuse to contact him."

"I don't know, Mama…" Nyota had every intention of telling her parents about her relationship, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. What if she slipped up at dinner? "He's not exactly the most social of my instructors."

"Nonsense! He is your favorite _former_ instructor, and for Vulcan, he's positively warm!"

"He's not the same little boy you knew twenty years ago, Mama."

M'Umbha dismissed her daughter's concerns with a wave. "Besides, if that's the case, he could stand to see an old familiar face. Even Vulcans need friends."

Sensing that she was losing ground, Nyota protested more vigorously than she'd intended. "He's got friends!"

M'Umbha smirked. "Name two."

"Uh.. Captain Pike! And… and… me."

"Exactly, binti," a triumphant M'Umbha Uhura bint Wakufunzi declared.

.

.

Spock, unfortunately, didn't share his girlfriend's reservations. Later that evening, he seemed unusually eager to accept the invitation.

"But you don't know what an East African 'family style' dinner is like!" Nyota protested. "We'll be stuck with her for hours!"

"As a matter of fact, I do know what to expect at such a dinner. Your mother hosted several 'family-style' meals during her time in the Diplomatic Corps; unlike other members of the Corps, she usually included the children in her invitations. Mother and I grew quite fond of East African cuisine at those functions."

Uhura didn't bother pointing out that her mother wouldn't be in charge of the menu or that there was no guarantee they would go to an East African restaurant; if M'Umbha was still in occasional contact with Amanda Grayson, she likely remembered Spock's preferences.

"We'll. Be. Stuck. With. Her. For. Hours."

He raised an eyebrow as if to say, "I fail to see the problem."

"Nine months and three days, k'diwa," she reminded him.

His full-on frown should have warned her that she wouldn't like what he was about to say, but she was too wrapped up in her own worries to notice it.

"Nyota, I never promised you sexual intercourse for your birthday. I merely said that we would not engage in it until after you turned eighteen."

* * *

**A/N:** The nineteenth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future .

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	20. Reconnections

**Now: February 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

Amused, Uhura slid her hand between their bodies to rake fingers through the hair on her lover's chest. "It's a good thing you were so good at making up for making me wait back then." She tilted her head up to nip at his chin. "You were very, very good, k'diwa."

Spock's pleasure at the memory radiated through their link. "Your performance was not without merit, beloved," he murmured.

His continued teasing earned him a giggle and a kiss. He gave himself up to reciprocating the exploration of her lips and tongue until…

"I think now would be a good time for another demonstration of your prowess and of my skill at redressing my failures to please you," he whispered against her mouth.

Uhura pulled back just enough to let him see her smile. "Already? Baby, I haven't come down from our last five acts."

Spock slipped a hand behind her head and leaned in for another kiss. "We have a great deal of 'making up' to do, beloved," he reminded her. "I owe you nearly a year's worth of restitution for my misdeeds. You would not wish to deny me the opportunity to properly demonstrate my contrition, would you?"

Her languid stretch brought roughly ninety percent of the anterior portion of her body into contact with his.

"Give me five more minutes to enjoy your last demonstration, hmm?" She tucked her face into the crook of his neck.

He smiled into her hair. "I will be counting the seconds, Nyota."

.

Replete at last, the couple's pillow talk drifted to the worlds outside Uhura's room. Spock admitted his relief at the eminent departure of Lieutenant, junior grade, Saunders, eliciting another giggle from his fiancée.

"The Enterprise's gain is T'Khasi Vokaya's gain," she quipped. "He'll fit right in with our students, and Jeff Ehringer, bad jokes and all, will do well on the bridge."

"_You_ would do even better, beloved," he rejoined. "I am not the only one who has acutely felt your absence."

"It won't be for much longer, k'diwa," she promised. "We won't let it be. I'll bet that's the real reason why Kirk's so eager to talk to important people. Staff changes can't be the only thing that got him to willingly let sa-mekh lead him anywhere. I half expected our captain to pick a fight with him as soon as he arrived at the station."

"You have not had to work closely with Lieutenant, junior grade, Saunders," Spock pointed out. "Even the idea of settling him here is a strong enough inducement for Jim Kirk to treat my father respectfully."

Laughing harder than the small joke warranted, Uhura cuddled up closer to Spock. She "felt" him raise an inquiring brow through their link.

"Being with you again must be what using recreational drugs is like," she explained. "I'm still feeling pretty giddy."

"I feel the same, ashal-veh."

"I noticed," she noted, giggling again.

* * *

**Now: February/March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

Kirk leaned back in his chair, linked fingers resting on his belly. Negotiations had gone well for all involved.

He had acquired several new crewmembers from his wish-list. The Clarion would take some those leaving the ship back to Earth; others would remain onboard as replacements for people who'd been wish-listed right off the ship.

Lieutenant, junior grade, Saunders, thankfully, would remain on the colony planet for an undetermined length of time. He would not return to the Enterprise once his mission was complete.

Sherry Merrow, the Clarion's diminutive captain, was speaking quietly to her XO as the two women prepared to leave. The other woman quickly entered notes on her PADD with one hand while motioning to their Vulcan guide with the other.

"You know, Bones, one of these days you're gonna get Spock in a whole lot of trouble." Kirk grinned at his friend. He knew Ambassador Sarek could hear everything he said, but he whispered anyway. No sense in giving the departing captain of the Clarion anything to gossip about.

McCoy turned his head to glare at the younger man. "That boy finds trouble just fine without my help," McCoy protested. "_I've_ been teaching him how to get _out_ of it!"

"And if his actions earlier today were indication, Doctor," Sarek put in from his seat across the small conference table, "you have performed your duties as future best man quite well."

All three stood as Merrow and her first officer rose to leave. After the farewells were complete, Kirk started to follow the two women from the conference room, only to get stopped by Spock's dad.

"Captain, Doctor," he said, "as my son is otherwise occupied, there is more I need to discuss with both of you."

Just as Jim started to grin at the thought of exactly what was occupying Spock at the moment, a door he hadn't noticed before — hell, he was pretty sure that wall hadn't even had any decoration, let alone a doorway — hissed open behind him. Spinning around brought him face-to-face with a Betazoid woman.

Early fifties, he guessed, and wondered if she was in the Phase yet.

Sarek's voice brought his wandering mind out of the gutter and back to the room.

"This," the Vulcan told him, "is Miran Helso."

* * *

**Now: February/March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

M'Umbha looked up from the hand-written text she'd been reviewing for the third time. It had been many years since she'd been required to read Vulcan writing, and she wanted to make sure she understood the instructions. T'Khio'ri's ceremony needed to be perfect.

"I never had a wedding." Her tone was wistful, but not sad. She smiled at T'Khio'ri and covered the other woman's hand with her own. "Benjamin and I eloped."

Her daughter smiled back, but knew she hadn't properly closed off her feelings. She wondered if M'Umbha had felt her flash of concern.

"I know the story."

Her mother drew her hand back immediately. "Of course," she whispered. "It would have been the same for your parents. _Exactly_ the same, since we were… the same people back then." Apparently, she had felt the flash.

T'Khio'ri reached over and took M'Umbha's hand between both of hers, allowing the human to feel her affection. She added _calm_ to the projection.

"You and Baba were so in love. It didn't matter what the elders said about bloodlines and the danger of exposure; you found a way to be together."

"In spite of everything," M'Umbha agreed, not realizing she was echoing words T'Khio'ri had once spoken to Nyota.

Her daughter let the burble of amusement flow through their linked hands as she laughed aloud.

"It must be a family trait!"

M'Umbha stared wonderingly into the Vulcan's bright eyes, until comprehension pushed past the storm of memory and emotion dominating her mind.

"Passed down from mother to daughter, generation after generation," she said, giving in to her own laughter.

"Wakufunzi women," they said in unison, "get what they want." The oft-spoken family disclaimer vanquished the remnants of M'Umbha's fear and sorrow. She held on to her daughter's hands and laughed joyfully before getting down to work again.

"There is so not much Benjamin and I are expected to do for the actual ceremony," she lamented. "And there is little notation here of celebrating afterward. I suppose, under normal circumstances the bride and groom would have been spirited away to some cave immediately after…"

T'Khio'ri chuckled softly again as her mother blushed. She knew from Nyota that M'Umbha didn't shy away from speaking to her children about sex. _Perhaps there is _another_ reason…_

She rose and walked around the table to read the swirling Vulcan script from over her mother's shoulder. The old book was open to an appendix recounting the various ways in which relative might commemorate the new pair's bonding.

And laughed loud and hard when she saw what had heated M'Umbha's cheeks.

"Although _that_ particular… celebration was undoubtedly meant for bridal parents still of child-bearing years," she said after the last burble had escaped her lips, "I am sure no one will object if you and Baba decide to honor the tradition. And since Spock and I will be in 'some cave' you, are welcome to use our home if you are uncomfortable _celebrating_ in Sarek's house."

It took less than an hour for mother and daughter to agree on a final design for T'Khio'ri's dress. They chose musicians from among the colonists of C'thia t'Surak. By the time Sarek, Spock and Benjamin joined them, they had nearly completed their plans for the limited role the bride's family would play in the ceremony.

* * *

**A/N:** The twentieth chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future.

I know this is a little shorter than usual, but it's been so long since I updated...and I couldn't figure out how to rework the final scene w/out having to immediately put up the next chapter to 1C13:11 (which also needs editing), so I cut it off.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	21. Reparations

**Now: February 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

Uhura woke reluctantly. She was even more disinclined to pull herself from Spock's arms. He was equally loath to release her.

"Can we not use this day to continue our reconciliation?"

Laughing, she twined her arms around his neck. "You've been spending too much time with Kirk." She pressed her lips against his. "They already gave me all of yesterday off. I can't take another day, no matter how tempting the reason for it might be."

"Jim is a good captain," Spock mused as if he was realizing the fact for the first time. "He has several flaws, but indolence is not one of them. And he does not tolerate the trait in members of his crew." Absently, he traced patterns across her shoulders with long, hot fingers.

"I know he is." Yawning, Uhura stretched and, escaping her lover's loose embrace, sat up. "And he's good with people. That is, he's good with people he isn't trying to sleep with."

Spock sat up as well, placing a leg on either side of her. His fingers found her shoulders again.

"Over the past two years, ten months and twelve days I have encountered several women who would beg to differ."

* * *

**Now: February 2261(a), the Enterprise**

"Bones." The captain fiddled with a glass of McCoy's third-best bourbon instead of looking at his friend. His voice held that wondering note that usually spelled trouble when it came out of Jim Kirk's mouth. The doctor let a full minute go by before he bothered replying.

"I don't want to know."

"Excuse me, _Lieutenant Commander_." Kirk looked up from his fiddling. "What was that?"

Bones ignored the unsubtle hint. "I said, I don't want to know anything about whatever it is you're about to try to stick our noses into."

Jim went on talking anyway. "Ambassador Sarek is up to something." He placed the glass on McCoy's desk and stood. "Why did he have a Betazoid hidden in his closet during the meeting yesterday?"

"I don't know, Jim. And I don't _want_ to know."

"So why'd he introduce her to us _after_ Merrow was gone?" The captain paced the length of the small sitting room. "Why just _us_?"

Fully aware that his friend didn't really require a response in order to work out whatever it was that was on his mind, Bones said nothing.

"That stuff about Betazed eventually joining the Federation? Bullshit."

"Actually, Jim, Betazed already started the application process." Kirk stopped, mid-step, and aimed a knowing smile Bones's way. "What?" snapped the doctor. "You think you're the only one who thought to check Miran Helso's story?"

"You're such a liar," Jim said, shaking his head.

"If Betazoids are gonna start serving on starships, I need to know a little bit about them."

"Your nose is growing, Pinocchio." Jim folded his arms across his chest.

"Shut up, Jim. I _said_ I don't want you sticking my nose in something that ain't my business and I meant it."

"You were curious enough to check Betazed's record." Jim grinned triumphantly.

"Yeah, and I learned enough to know I don't want to know any more than I know now."

"What exactly _do_ you know?"

"Nothin'! But I got a hunch, and it don't mean nothin' good for us if I'm right." McCoy took a swig of bourbon and offered Jim a belligerent glance. He knew when he was licked, but he didn't have to like it.

"What's that hunch?" Kirk cajoled.

"She's a spy, Jim. An undercover operative. A secret agent. A spook."

"That's not all, Bones," Jim said, all of the teasing and bluster and curiosity suddenly absent from his voice. "No, I think she's the head spook in charge."

* * *

**Now: March 1 equivalent, 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

In spite of having had so little time to truly plan, Spock decided the evening was a success. Several of her students mingled in the midst of the dozen of Nyota's friends and colleagues spread out over his father's modest grounds. For the Starfleet personnel, it was an unexpected night off; for the Vulcans, the night was a new opportunity to observe human behavior.

"Are you pleased, ashal-veh?" he asked, pulling her closer. The sensation of her body relaxing against his was pleasing. Her surprise and pleasure slipped through their link and she tried to draw away. Spock held her firmly, uncaring of who might see.

"This is a little different from how we've spent my Naming Day the past few years, but.. I'm happy." She stopped trying to escape, instead twisting in his embrace so she could nuzzle his chest. "_We're_ happy; Mama and Baba are happy; T'Khio'ri and Spock are happy; even Sa-mekh is happy."

He peered over her head to where his father stood speaking with Nyota's friend, T'Dun. Sarek looked up and met his gaze, but Spock sensed no censure for the display of physical affection.

Spock dipped his head to whisper in her ear. "We shall celebrate in our usual manner later," he promised.

* * *

**Then:** **March 1, 2257(a), the Academy**

The birthday dinner had been a disappointment. Not only because the protracted celebration — which had been extended to accommodate the "surprise" arrival of her father along with several aunts and uncles and cousins — interfered with her plans for Spock, but also because she knew her family saw it as a stand-in for the more traditional naming-day festivities she'd actually been anticipating.

The few friends she'd invited along — Gaila because she couldn't _not_ invite her roommate; Pavel Chekov because the boy always looked like he could use a good meal; Hiraku Sulu because he wasn't really on break since he wasn't a cadet anymore and because he had saved her ass more than once by finding some obscure and interesting plant to serve as a last-minute gift for her father; and Spock because Mama wouldn't have it any other way — had all seemed to enjoy the food and spending time with her gregarious family.

Not that anyone but her, and maybe M'Umbha, could tell that Spock was having the time of his life. But Mama had filled his plate over and over and the others had marveled at just how much food the Vulcan had been able to put away.

Everyone but the birthday girl, it seemed, had walked away from the night happy and full and full of good feeling.

Without classes to distract her and no party to look forward to, Uhura spent six quiet days researching possible thesis topics and trying not to mope. She chastised herself for the decision to remain on campus for the break. While she welcomed the undisturbed time for study and preparation for her final year, when she was honest with herself — which was most of the time — she had to acknowledge that she was miserable in Spock's absence.

When he'd announce his intention of spending a portion to the month-long break assisting Captain Pike in vetting and interviewing potential Enterprise crew, her first reaction had been anger. He'd known, although she'd tried to hide it. To her grateful surprise, instead of chastising her, her boyfriend had gently reminded of her own goals. She'd acquiesced because she hadn't been able to argue for an alternative and, besides, he'd made the prospect of getting a head-start on her thesis had sound like a good idea.

In reality, she was miserable. She didn't let that impede her progress, but it certainly colored her rare interactions with other sentient beings. By the time the seventh day was fading into evening, Uhura was considering a life of violent crime.

The sound of the door chime interrupted a particularly satisfying fantasy on which she wielded a phaser in one hand and a long curved sword in the other.

She could still feel a nasty smile curving her lips when the door slip open to reveal her missing Vulcan standing, hands behind his back, at the entrance to her room.

"What are you doing here?" She regretted the words almost as soon as she had said them, but shock left her incapable of thinking clearly.

"Is it not tradition among your people to commemorate the date on which you were named with gifts and celebration?"

Nodding dumbly, she indulged in a brief moment of self pity.

"As I am partially responsible for your decision not to return to Garissa this break, it is only fair that I honor that tradition, beloved."

.

His breath was hot against her ear. She shivered, automatically burrowing deeper into her half of his bed, as a delicious thrill radiated throughout her body from a point nowhere near her external auditory appendage. The happy coo escaped her lips before she could stop it.

"I am happy to have pleased you," Spock told her, and although his voice was as flat as ever, she sensed smug amusement through the empathic connection that came to life whenever they touched. She chuckled for him. "_I'm_ just glad you were worth the wait, Lieutenant Commander."

* * *

**Now: March 1 equivalent, 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

Benjamin heard the approaching footsteps, but did not turn to see who his new companion would be. His eyes were riveted on the scene before him, and no Vulcan would find his lack of action rude.

"Your wife's behavior intrigues me. She looks with the eyes of a mother upon a woman many times her age. Curious."

He acknowledged the elderly Vulcan's statement with a glance before turning back to watching his wife and daughters.

The three women stood close together, clearly joined though they didn't touch. Their combined laughter floated through the thin night air. He was hard-pressed to separate one voice from another. _As it should be_, he thought.

"And what of you?" T'Pau asked. "Do you see a daughter in that one?"

He didn't need time to consider his answer. In spite of growing up in another universe and living through experiences he hated to contemplate, T'Khio'ri had retained much of the quintessence which defined his Nyota Ndogo. By her own accounting, she was nearly two centuries old, yet she looked no older than M'Umbha. None of that mattered because his heart swelled with paternal affection whenever he saw her.

"I know you were the one who made my marriage possible," he said, rather than answering. "But I have never known why. Nor can I see why you once thought my daughter suitable to join your house."

T'Pau stood mute, studying the human man for several long moments.

"I do not believe that is true," she said finally. "You, of all people should comprehend my reasons, Benjamin Uhura."

.

.

A faint smile still lingered on her ageless face as T'Khio'ri stepped to her sa-kugalsu's side.

"You are more subdued than I expected," she said. "But I do not sense that you are unhappy. What are you thinking?"

Turning slightly, Spock covered her left cheek with his right palm. "I _am_ happy, beloved," he said with a graveness that was at odds with his words. "However, watching those two" using only his eyes, he indicated the path on which his t'dahsu led hers away from the dying party "reminds me that I celebrated too few of these with you. I have reason to be grateful that my 'star of freedom' has been returned to me."

"What were you so afraid of then, lover?" she asked, pressing her cheek into his large hand. "Me? Yourself? Why did you think going to Gol was the answer?"

"It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time," he said. "I did not understand what I felt for you; I did not understand what I now believe to be Surak's true intention. Indeed, my choice would have left me incapable of displaying the discipline that Surak required."

"And what do you believe was his true intention?"

"That we master our emotions, in order to avoid becoming enslaved by them. He never meant for Vulcans to eliminate our feelings entirely. We were not made to be empty shells."

"But such discipline would have also been unnecessary," she pointed out.

"Unnecessary, yes. And yet without discipline, I would not have truly been following Surak's teachings. In many ways, Gol offered what humans call 'taking the easy way out.' It was not the correct path for me."

* * *

**Then: August, 2270 (p), the Enterprise**

Commander Spock retained one of her hands after she handed him the ka'athyra. Once he had bent to careful stowed the instrument in its case, he stood straight and took her other hand, bringing the two together. The firm hold of his warm fingers almost distracted her from his falling shields. Too many months had passed since he had last touched her in this way.

"I plan to resign my commission once the Enterprise returns to the Earth," he announced before she'd gotten her thoughts in order. "I will then travel to Gol with the intention of pursuing kolinahr."

Her eyes widened. "The purging of all emotion? Has it really been so terrible for you? Feeling?"

Something flickered in his eyes but was gone before she could begin to identify it. "The emotions I have experienced during my tenure in Starfleet have not been 'terrible,' but neither have they been easy, for me," he said. "Although I am Vulcan, it has become plain to me that I lack the means to control Vulcan emotions. Kolinahr is the best choice for me."

Not knowing how to respond, Uhura stared their joined hands. She knew he could sense the pain crushing her heart, but did nothing to keep it from him. Part of her thought she was being unfair, allowing him full access to what she was experiencing; the larger part decided he should soak up as much emotion as possible while he was still capable.

"I guess I should have expected this," she murmured shakily. Looking up, she met his eyes and continued, "I knew living like this — so many of us on the ship trying to become your friend" she smiled wryly and squeezed his fingers "or trying to become more — I knew it was difficult for you. I guess I just thought we would win you over in the end."

She was surprised when his fingers tightened around hers and he drew her closer to his lean form.

"Nyota, please," he began, then paused. He sucked in a breath that expanded his chest until it brushed against her cheek. "Please do not view my decision as a reflection on you or your actions. I have enjoyed the time we have spent together, and appreciated all that I have learned from you.

"But I chose the path of Surak long ago. I do not believe I can remain true to that choice by any other means."

Something a little like sadness and regret slipped through the touch of his fingers. She _was_ being unfair to him, she decided. _He doesn't deserve to suffer any more_. Raising her mental shields as she'd first been taught to do while she was still a little girl, she stepped back and pulled her hands from his.

"So the goal is Gol," she said in an attempt to make light of the situation. Not that she expected him to believe in her carefree tone. For all that he claimed not to understand _why_ she loved him, she knew he understood _how_ she loved him. She turned away so she wouldn't have to see his reaction to her next words. "I'm going to miss you so much, Spock, and you won't even be able to care that I'm not in your life anymore."

Heat blooming against her back told her he had moved to stand directly behind her, although his steps had been silent. She imagined his smooth grace and had to choke back a sob over all that she would be losing.

"It is true that I will not 'miss' you because once I have reached my goal, I will be incapable of such human emotion, Lieutenant," he explained dispassionately. "I can only wish _now_ that you will find it sufficient to know that you are presently among those whom I count as friends."

It took all of her strength not to shrug off the hand he placed on her neck. In spite of her shields, his touch proved he felt anything but aloof at the moment.

"It's _not_ sufficient, but it will have to be enough, won't it?" she whispered. "I'm not the one with the choice. If I had a choice, I would choose indifference. Or I would choose to be genuinely happy for you, instead of feeling sorry for myself. After all, I've always known we wouldn't be forever."

His lips, when they moved over the shell of her ear, emanated a familiar heat. She reminded herself that it was not hers to enjoy whenever she wished.

"Then I am glad you do have such a choice, Lieutenant. I realize that is a selfish thing to say and feel, but it is the truth. You have shown me that while achieving the state has escaped me, there can be benefits to being 'in love.'"

"That _is_ unfair," she agreed, her voice straining against the tightening of her throat. When she felt his free arm slide around her waist, she shivered even as his warmth enveloped her.

Unable to stop herself even if she had wanted to — and she did not want to — she turned and slid her hands up to his shoulders. "I hope you will be happy with your decision, Mr. Spock," she choked out.

"Happiness is not the goal of kolinahr."

She studied his solemn face. Turmoil and confusion, usually so well masked by the placid expression, suddenly seemed as obvious as her own pain. The unexpected understanding left her unsettled. She felt her anguish melt away, leaving only a dull disappointment in its wake.

"In that case, I hope you will find peace," she told him.

He leaned forward until his forehead rested against hers.

"Thank you, Nyota," was his quiet response.

* * *

**A/N:** The twenty-first chapter in the sequel to _Once and Future_. Most of the questions left unanswered there are being addressed in this fic. Didn't read _Once_? Find it at... /s/5293456/1/Once_and_Future.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.


	22. Allegiances

**Now: March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

Still weary from her night of celebration with friends and family — and from the more private celebration she and her betrothed had shared afterwards — Uhura forced herself to ignore Spock's protests and answer Uncle Tabansi's unexpected summons.

"It has been nearly twenty-eight years since Lieutenant Commander Wakufunzi lost his fiancée," he noted. "Perhaps he has forgotten how precious time spent with one's ko-kugalsu can be."

"I doubt that," she said as she extricated herself from her lover's arms. "Especially not with Kirk here to remind him of the day she died." Unable to resist his deliciously inviting pout, she leaned in for a brief kiss before rising to her feet. "He wouldn't have called if it wasn't important, k'diwa. But this probably won't take long."

Rolling onto his side, Spock planted an elbow in the mattress and propped his head against his hand. Uhura paused in gathering clothes for the day to stare at him.

"Why don't you come with me?"

He was on his feet in less than a second. "That would be wise," he said. "I shall be able to ensure you don't tarry."

.

.

Uhura was both right _and_ wrong. The appointment was certainly important, but it was taking much longer than she'd predicted. The added presence of the S'chn T'gai matriarch and both of their t'dahsular had been a surprise, but once they knew the subject of the discussion, she could only wonder why her Spock had not been ordered to attend, as well. She gave him an apologetic half-smile. He laced his fingers with hers and squeezed.

"We know little of the entity beyond its belief that Spock and his mate are two parts of a single being," T'Pau argued. "The bonding must occur as planned, and I must be the one to perform the ceremony. It is my right."

"As you had reservations about our union," the ambassador reminded her, "we have already approached Tedov Tela'at for that role."

"Is that wise?" the old woman turned to him, her cold face not revealing anything that she was thinking. "You would risk having Tedov Tela'at touch your mate's mind?"

"Risk?" T'Khio'ri put in.

T'Pau addressed her directly. "We do not understand the method by which the being changed you. As both Spocks have reason to know, not all of my people are accepting of the mixing of races. Would you have him discover what you are?"

"Many must have already suspected — if not from seeing me with Nyota, than surely since Mama and Baba have come to T'Khasi Vokaya," T'Khio'ri pointed out. "And the Wakufunzi connection to Betazed is not so great a secret that I fear its exposure."

"Yes," the old woman agreed. "They see your resemblance to your t'dahsu and to her mother." She stood and walked toward the door. With an air of finality she added, "However, I am head of S'chn T'gai and I insist on this."

Ambassador Spock opened his mouth for further protest, but his mate laid a hand on his arm in warning.

"We accept, T'Pau Tela'at," she told the elder, bowing respectfully.

"You have chosen well, ko-fu," the old Vulcan said. "While M'Umbha Uhura bint Wakufunzi may not insist on keeping the origins of her clan hidden, the same might not be said of Benjamin Uhura."

Then the door slid open, and she walked out.

.

"What the hell was she talking about?" Uhura asked as soon they were alone. Receiving no answer, she glanced at her four silent companions in turn. "Don't everyone answer at once!"

The elder Spock's inscrutable expression melted into genuine confusion even as Uncle Tabansi's face closed into a Vulcan-like mask. T'Khio'ri looked thoughtful.

"I am not certain," she said, eventually. "But I intend to find out."

At that, the Minister of Communications looked startled. His gaze swung back and forth between the two Vulcans several times before he spoke.

"You must speak with Benjamin," he said. "All four of you."

* * *

**Now: March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

Jim Kirk found it difficult to fathom being ensnared in a connection — to a single woman! — that was so profound it had spanned at least two universes and vastly differing circumstances, but he was determined to play a role in the joining of his friends. Seizing the opportunity when he spotted the couple exiting Lieutenant Commander Wakufunzi's apartment building, he rushed over to them and smiled sheepishly at T'Khio'ri before quickly laying out his proposition to Spock.

The ambassador was too amused — and grateful for the respite from pondering T'Pau's parting words — to truly object when the young captain insisted on observing his "final night of freedom."

"It's tradition, Spock!" Kirk cajoled.

"Not my tradition," the old half-Vulcan protested lightly, but the glint in his dark eyes belied is words.

"Come on, you can't just get married without having bachelor party," Jim insisted, knowing the battle had been won before it had begun.

Spock pretended to consider the proposition for a moment, watching Kirk's smug grin out from beneath lowered lashes.

"Very well," he said at last.

"Great!" Jim clapped him on the back and hurried back down the street. "I'll get back to you later with the details," he called over his shoulder. "One week, Spock!"

As the excitable young man disappeared around a corner, T'Khio'ri said dryly, "I suppose it would only be fair for me to allow Nyota to plan a 'hen night' for me."

Spock's glance at her was sharp, but he offered no objection. "Yes, my love," he said.

* * *

**Now: March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

The two couples did not get an opportunity to approach Dr. Uhura as a group. When the Africans and half-humans met in Sarek's home that evening to select their attire for the bonding, Tabansi Wakufunzi encouraged his shemeji to speak with his future sons-in-law immediately. He noted that Benjamin was unsurprised by T'Pau's allusions, and seemed resigned to sharing his secret.

"Wapwa," Tabansi addressed the Spocks, "you should both hear what my sister's husband has to say."

The two half-Vulcans exchanged identical glances, both immediately understanding what was happening. They crossed the small parlor to sit in the chairs placed across from where the human men sat. Their father remained standing.

.

"You may not trust Elder T'Pau's motives for insisting on performing the bonding," the doctor began, "but I believe she intends only to continue upholding a sacred trust she was endowed with long ago.

"At one time, I was under orders never to have children, and yet after tomorrow I will have three daughters and two sons." He directed a small smile in the younger Spock's direction. "Who knows how many will be calling me 'Baba' three years from now? The changes life brings can be amazing."

His face turned somber as he paused to find the right words to say next.

"My clan's choices, had they been widely known, would have made them outcasts. Instead, they became heroes who helped build a single free nation where once there had been chaos, corruption and the enduring effects of conquest. The time before Independence was painful for all of Africa."

Benjamin's gaze drifted across the room to meet Sarek's.

"Our reasons would not have mattered to our fellow humans, but it began as an effort to save the children," he went on. "Those whose veins flowed with the mixed bloods of Uhuru Warriors and they who made us what we have become.

"They called themselves 'chi'Thaai Veothai,' and while they did not revere Surak, they believed most of his teachings were valid. As you can imagine, this did not endear them to the Empire."

Two of the three Vulcans stiffened at the Romulan words Benjamin used to name his ancestors. Neither noticed their father did not react to the revelation.

Tabansi placed an encouraging hand on his shemeji's forearm, but for too long, no one spoke.

Then a look of comprehension replaced the stiff mask of the elder Spock's face. "Logic's Children?" he translated, breaking the heavy silence. "That is why T'Pau — in my universe and yours — has shown interest in Nyota?"

"Her plans have not changed, then," the younger said wonderingly. "She still intends to unite Vulcans and Romulans."

Slowly, Benjamin nodded. Tension began to seep from the room, and he resumed his tale.

"The Eugenics Wars were devastating in Africa and anything, or any_one_, with even the suggestion of genetic modification was considered suspect. Our people would not — _still_ will not — accept such people, even from the clans that led them to freedom.

"They numbered just over one hundred — males, females and children exiled because of their beliefs — when they first came to my ancestors in the last days of the Wars — before Uhura was a clan, before Africa had a Revolution, before they even knew that the dissent and the series of conflicts that had so desolated my continent and decimated its peoples had been caused by these Augments.

"History only records the atrocities the Augments wrought with their own hands. The disease they created and used to decimate my continent is still called an accident of nature. The insidious divisions they inspired in the hearts of men were left to die, unknown. For many years African slaughtered African in the name of their lies, Christian and Muslim, Hutu and Tutsi. As time went on, who could truly tell the difference?"

Pausing again, the doctor took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. Sarek crossed the room and sat on his other side, laying a hand atop the xenopsychiatrist's, obviously projecting peace, calm. After a moment, Benjamin opened his eyes again, and with a look of gratitude for the Vulcan, continued his story.

"In secret, the Children of Reason joined with my ancestors, teaching them do what they could to help rout the Augments. And they stayed on because they could not return to the Empire, and their ships would not have taken them there, anyway.

"They remained on Earth, in Africa as the Uhuru Warriors took the name Uhura and began to fight against the Second Colonial Government to build a United Africa. And their children married the children of what had become the Uhuras. But the first pregnancies were not viable, so those warriors who had devoted themselves to battling the disease that spread itself through our ability to fight infection took up a new fight, one that would ensure that those whose blood was mixed would live.

"We are not like the Augments. The chi'Thaai Veothai and the Uhuras made sure of that from the beginning. But, according to the laws of Earth and of the Federation, we should not exist. So we hide what we are, telling only those who will not betray our trust. And every Uhura who chooses to become a medical warrior first learns to protect our family."

Commander Spock spent the silence that followed considering the ramifications of what Dr. Uhura had revealed. It did not take long for him to extrapolate another conclusion from the human's secret.

"It would be logical," he said, directing his words more towards his father than to his lover's father, "to assume that the son of human-Romulan hybrids could also use his people's knowledge and skills to ensure the survival of a Vulcan-human hybrid."

"Indeed," acknowledged Sarek.

.

For its similarity to Vulcan attire, the men chose to wear the Muslim-inspired white Ugandan kanzu under long jackets of kitenge for Spock's bonding. They would, it was decided, honor the sacrifices Benjamin Uhura's ancestors made to help create the United States of Africa.

* * *

**Now: March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

With astounding efficiency, Uhura contacted her friends on the Enterprise and made arrangements for a bachelorette party to be held there. T'Khio'ri gave a little smile, remembering when she had also been so eager to enjoy herself — and to one-up the males in her life.

"Rand, Tamura, Jamal and Gaila are down, and they're working to get Dr. Noel and Masters to join us," her young counterpart reported from across the Vulcan woman's sitting room. "All they need to hear is that Mama and T'Dun will there, and they'll agree to join us."

Chuckling, M'Umbha winked at T'Dun. "I wasn't aware we were so popular among your friends!"

"They'll just want to pick your brains," Uhura replied absently, already focused on her planning once more. "Dr. Noel would probably prefer to meet with Baba, but you're a close second on her top ten list of people she wants to meet. And Masters keeps asking me questions about T'Khasi Vokaya's geology that I end up turning over to T'Dun."

"I would also like to speak with Lieutenant Masters about her theories on using gamma radiation to recrystallize dilithium," T'Dun remarked. "This excursion might prove fascinating for all involved."

* * *

**Now: March 2261(a), the Enterprise**

_Captain's log, Stardate 2261.66_

_Tomorrow, on my twenty-eighth birthday, Ambassador Spock will be bonded to Ambassador T'Khio'ri, as T'Khasi Vokaya's sun sets on the capital city. This will be the first year I've felt like I have something to celebrate. Before he gives up nearly two centuries as a single man, I intend to make sure he celebrates that freedom. _

_Tonight, Scotty, Sulu, Bones, Chekov and I — all of the guys he knew back in his reality — will be taking a shuttlecraft to the nearest pleasure base (Only an hour away at warp two! I'll bet the old boy didn't mention _that_ when he told the High Council he'd found a "suitable planet." )in search of a good time._

_I'm leaving Lieutenant, junior grade, Saunders in charge as sort of a going away present._

_Right now, it's time to party._

* * *

**Now: March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

T'Pau knew this was not what they preferred, but they ceased to protest her right as matriarch to join them in the Vulcan way. El'es T'Khio'ri had long been this Spock's mate; the bonding was only a formality. Both knew honor prevented her from attempting to harm them, and that it was beyond her abilities to break the unusual bond they had inadvertently created between themselves.

Slowly, she walked towards the dais. Across a banked fire glowing in the middle of the platform, the former human knelt facing Spock. Her weight centered on her heels, T'Khio'ri rested perfectly still palms on her thighs.

T'Pau climbed three steps to stand between the couple, then with a flowing grace, she sank down onto the smooth stone.

The heat of the fire pit enveloped her. Dimly, she was aware of those who had come to watch, but their presence faded as she reached both hands out to her sides. Without the benefit of her sight — she stared straight ahead — her fingertips found their meld points, and she was inside both Spock and his chosen one.

She was surprised to find the female's thoughts were the more ordered of the two. Spock's were almost entirely Vulcan in structure, but tiny flares of emotion escaped his careful control as he regarded his betrothed. Although T'Khio'ri's thoughts were ordered and her passions assigned to channels through which she could direct their flow, her hold — no doubt developed during the time she'd spent on the colony she called C'thia t'Surak — was less firm, yet more complete.

_Curious_, T'Pau reflected in the part of mind she shielded from them. She would need to learn more about the technique. This other interpretation of Surak's path might have some benefit to her people, after all.

Pushing the extraneous thoughts aside, T'Pau drew on the two consciousnesses she touched and directed the couple to reach for each other physically, to touch the meld points where she did not touch, to weave themselves even closer together, adding to the bond they already shared.

T'Khio'ri became an extension of Spock and Spock became a part of T'Khio'ri. T'Pau withdrew from them, her hands dropping to her sides.

.

"Feelin' a little déjà vu." McCoy shook his head as T'Pau rose from the platform and walked back through the small audience without addressing them. "He asked us to traipse out here to the middle of nowhere just to watch the three of them play touchy-feely and the lovebirds could make cow eyes at each other?"

Jim elbowed the doctor in the ribs. "Hush, Bones," he said.

* * *

**A/N:** In the Star Trek Timeline, the Eugenics Wars supposedly took place between 1992 and 1996. Over the course of the various series, confusion has arisen about the nature of the Wars because of a tendency for some to equate them with WWIII (inspired by Spock's comment in the TOS episode _Space Seed_). In an attempt to reconcile the dates given for the Wars with what is now our history, in his _Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars novels_, Greg Cox depicted the conflicts as covert exchanges among the Augments. I've taken a similar tack with my idea of the wars, as well as incorporating a more prosaic concept of a eugenics war — "a sociopolitical conflict characterized by coercive state-sponsored genetic discrimination." To that end, I've depicted devastating race- and ethnicity-related horrors from our own history — most notably the 1994 Rwandan Genocide — as being parts of the Eugenics Wars.

A couple of years ago, _Say You're One of Them_, a review copy of a collection of stories written by a Nigerian Jesuit priest, landed on my desk when the books editor opted not to review it. I was riveted by Uwen Akpan's tales of life in Africa (I'm not alone in this: after publication, it became a 2009 selection for Oprah Winfrey's Book Club.). One of those stories depicted the effects of Muslim-Christian violence in Nigeria. Another was set in Rwanda during the genocide. Reading it lead me to read and watch everything I could get my hands on about what happened.

One thing I saw, over and over, was that some people — many of them Rwandans, themselves — were unable to definitely distinguish a Hutu from a Tutsi. I also learned that the _current_ designations — valid or not — were imposed somewhat randomly (based on wealth and on phenotype) on the people (how the pre-Colonial Hutu and Tutsis distinguished themselves is complicated) by European colonizers, and were based solely on divergent physical features evident at the time.

Another influence was Wangari Maathai's memoir, _Unbowed_. There, Maathai, the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, wrote of the government-inspired inter-ethnic violence that erupted in her native Kenya and across Africa in the 1990s.

I've also altered Kirk's date of birth. Since 2233.04 doesn't jibe with Roberto Orci's self-professed Stardate formula, I just decided to make Kirk two weeks premature, which, under Orci's system makes his birthday equivalent to March 8, 2233 — stardate 2233.67.

**A/N addendum:** If Jim's and Bones's exchange after the bonding sounds familiar, that's because I took the dialogue, almost verbatim, from my earlier story "Don't Lose Your Compass." In fact, the entire description of the ceremony was based on Spock and Uhura's bonding from that fic.


	23. Resolution

**Now: March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya**

A familiar tingle began flowing under Uhura's skin. She sucked in a deep breath. In past encounters, she'd been too preoccupied with what she saw to register the sensation, but this time she knew what was coming even before the glowing mist appeared.

Without thinking about what they were doing, she and Spock moved towards the platform where the newly-bonded couple still knelt. As they mounted the stairs, all four were enveloped.

.

Spock had not experienced this or anything like it in all his many decades, but through T'Khio'ri, he recognized the entity. Her savior, the agent of her rebirth. He felt it pulling his consciousness towards the younger couple and he opened his mind.

.

They heard:

_It is done. It begins._

And then a host of images, myriads of possible outcomes, swept through four minds that functioned as one. Always, two little girls, or two young women in some cases — one, unquestionably Vulcanoid, the other more vaguely so — were the focus of the visions.

_They must not fail. They must resist what she offers. You will give them the strength_.

And the moving pictures continued showing their daughters' possible futures — fates that sometimes involved danger or even death, and sometimes culminated in peace, joy, harmony.

The multitude of voices spoke to them throughout.

_Remember, but do not remember_.

The being's voices made sense when they shouldn't have.

_It is not your place to steer destiny_.

Then they were released, and the four turned as one to face their stunned audience.

T'Pau alone did not appear confused or concerned or even curious. She seemed… bowed, but not defeated.

"I will remember," she said for their ears only. "But I shall also forget."

.

.

As they made their way to the vehicle that would carry them back to the city, Spock nudged Uhura, pointing with his chin when she glanced up at him.

She turned in the direction he indicated just in time to see T'Dun's middle and index fingers leave Sarek's. When she turned back to her k'diwa, her smile was radiant.

* * *

**Now: March 2261(a), T'Khasi Vokaya **

T'Pau stood waiting for the Betazoid to speak.

"You know why I asked to see you."

The old Vulcan only inclined her head. The Director could delve into her mind if she felt it was necessary, but Miran Helso rarely used the tactic. T'Pau did not believe she would do so now, but still tamped down the twinge of irritation at the unnecessary preamble.

"Your plans are dangerous," Helso continued. "There are others ways of achieving your ultimate goal. It is time to stand down, T'sai."

T'Pau did not miss the significance of the formal title. Previously, the Director had addressed her only as "My Hand."

"You have chosen the new mate of my relative," she said aloud.

Helso shrugged. "She will be my successor."

"It is not our duty to direct the future," T'Pau pointed out.

Black eyes met hers unflinchingly. "No, but it is my duty to protect the Federation. And when I am able, to remove any threat to its security."

Reflecting on the irony that a woman whose planet and people had not yet accepted membership to the Federation was the leader of Starfleet Intelligence, T'Pau had nothing further to say.

"We will take our place, T'sai," Helso told her. "One day. For now, I can stand apart. As will T'Khio'ri. You have shown that you cannot."

.

.

Miran Helso watched the faces of the captain and the doctor as she spoke. Neither showed any sign of disbelief. _Good_. She told them everything she thought they might need to hear before lapsing into an expectant silence.

"Why are you telling us this?" Kirk wanted to know at the same time McCoy asked, "What's to stop us from blabbing all over the universe."

"I've told you because there may come a day when you'll need to know in order to protect your precious cargo. As for blabbing… well, that's the beauty of Vulcan telepathy. Ambassador Sarek?"

Sarek stepped forward.

"Now, you just hold on a minute there! I don't want him fiddling around in my brain. What's to stop him from taking out things I'd rather keep and putting in something I don't want?" Bones flicked glance at the Vulcan. "No offense, sir."

"The ambassador is skilled in such things, Doctor McCoy. He will only suppress the active memory of what I have shared so that it can't be tortured out of you. You'll even remember that he did so, and that he did it to protect someone you care about. You can trust him."

Kirk moved to stand between Sarek and Bones. "Me first," he said. "I trust you."

"Thank you," Sarek said dryly.

"Don't be stupid, Jim!" McCoy protested.

Kirk turned to look at his best friend, his face more serious than Bones had seen it in years. "I trust him," he repeated. "We have to do this. For Uhura."

Unable to disagree, the doctor nodded.

* * *

**Now: March 2261(a), the Enterprise**

The ship was familiar and yet not. With the exception of staff exchanges — most of which she wasn't even fully aware of — not much had changed. Her quarters hadn't been touched at all.

"Jim has frequently expressed his desire for your return," Spock explained. "It is an inefficient use of space, but it is an error in judgment for which I have been grateful."

She grinned and shoved an armload of clothing into at him. "Here. Start packing."

.

Spock's eyes swept around his quarters, appreciating the sight of Nyota's things next to his. He'd wondered if bringing their belongings together might create disharmony; he was pleased to see how well they complemented each other.

"Are you certain you will not need any of this before your return?"

Nyota came to stand by his side, slipping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder. "Do you think I'm taking up too much of your space?" she teased.

"No," he said seriously. "I merely wish you to be comfortable during your final months on T'Khasi Vokaya. I want you to be happy."

"There's only one thing here that I _need_ to make me happy."

The surge of joy he felt emanating from her as she turned to fully embrace him underscored the truth of her words. He opened himself up so that she could taste his matching happiness.

.

Morning brought a more somber feeling.

"I will be back," she told him.

"I will make certain of it," he said, leaning in to capture her lips again. "I have a direct line to your frequency."

"Thank you, Spock," she whispered.

He stepped down from the transporter pad and watched as she disappeared in a haze of light.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for coming on this journey with was the end. For now.

Will there be a third full installment to the tale? Possibly. I know what happens far into their futures, but only time will tell if I need to write it down.

In the meantime, I've been working on an outtake that features moments from Spock's and T'Khio'ri's bachelor and bachelorette celebrations. They're humorous, but I'm slicing and dicing to make them _not_ crack. If you're interested, look for it in a couple of months.


End file.
